Billions expected from EU to boost growth
The European Union subsidy program for Greece covering the 2014-20 period begins with almost 5 billion euros flowing in from Brussels in the next couple of years.
On top of the projects planned for the first two years of the program, amounting to 4.2 billion euros, another 750 million euros will go toward the funding of previously announced plans to boost employment among the jobless, of which 600 million euros is from the 2014-20 program with the rest coming from the previous program.
According to the draft budget for next year, which was submitted this week in Parliament, the EU funds coming to Greece in the next two years will be the main funding force of the Public Investments Program that will amount to 6.4 billion euros in 2015. This concerns jointly funded projects – with EU contribution – budgeted at 5.7 billion euros, while 700 million euros will be spent on projects exclusively funded by national resources.
The funding program covering the period up to 2020 will amount to 26 billion euros, consisting of 20.8 billion from Brussels and 5.2 billion from the national budget. This amount includes 2 billion euros the Greek side will seek to secure next year through the revision clause, offsetting the imbalance from calculations made before the crisis.
