By Rallou Alexopoulou

 

 

The Economy and Finance Ministry seeks to increase the budget of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (Greece 2.0) by 5 billion euros, with Alternate Minister Nikos Papathanasis expected to submit the relevant request to the European Commission.

 

The new proposal of “Greece 2.0” will be submitted by the end of August and will initially include the REPowerEU funds amounting to 795 million euros as well as a request for additional loan re-sources of 5 billion euros which will be added to the loan part of the program totaling 12.7 billion euros. Provided that the relevant request is approved, the total amount to Greece will rise to 36 billion euros from 31.16 billion euros.

 

It is pointed out that the request to increase the allocated budget of the existing action by 5 billion euros will expand the possibilities and scope of financing investments.

 

The request will incorporate a reduction of the maximum economic assistance to Greece by 339 million euros as a result of the higher than expected increase in real GDP, while absolutely necessary changes may be proposed, due to objective difficulties. Given that the Recovery and Resilience Facility has an expiry date in 2026, speeding up procedures and overcoming obstacles is critical.

 

 

Although the potential increase in the overall budget cannot be characterized as negligible, REPowerEU is considered to be of major importance.

 

Given the current energy crisis, and with a view to reducing the country’s energy dependence and energy costs, but also the reforms and investments in the framework of the national Recovery and Resilience Facility, as well as the general policies and actions presented in the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), further actions are deemed necessary to accelerate the energy transition through energy conservation, diversification of energy supply and faster deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) to replace fossil fuels in the domestic sector, industry and energy production.

 

The proposed investments and reforms under the REPowerEU fund aim to further promote:

 

I. energy efficiency through actions aimed at the energy renovations of households and the tertiary sector, as well as promoting the energy efficiency of water supply and sewerage companies

 

II. the penetration of RES through actions that promote energy storage, the production of green hydrogen and biomethane, the installation of photovoltaic systems in combination with storage systems (batteries) and the saving of energy for households with the installation of solar water heaters