A billion euros for Thessaly
Resources for reconstruction from national funds as well as from European Union support
The government’s financial staff estimates that 1 billion euros will be allocated to Thessaly in 2023, according to a statement by the press representative of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, Omiros Tsapalos, to state broadcaster ERT.
Of that amount, €600 million is from the supplementary budget and about €400 million from European resources.
The supplementary budget is ready and will be submitted to Parliament in the next few days. Its expenses will be fully covered by revenue outperformance, according to Finance Ministry sources. Of the €600 million, €450 million will be allocated first aid, the coverage of buildings, housing infrastructure and subsidizing businesses and livestock units, for which the platform has already been opened. The remaining €150 million will be granted as compensation to farmers.
The first needs in infrastructure, railway and road networks will be financed from the €400 million that the government estimates it will receive this year from European funds, since most of the resources (€250 million) will come from the National Strategic Reference Framework, known in Greek as ESPA. “The money we will need will exhaust European resources, so it exceeds the €2 billion that the EU will give,” said Tsapalos.
In fact, with the €2.25 billion from the EU and the €600 million from the supplementary budget, the resources that have been launched to repair the damage already reach €2.85 billion.
For 2024, in addition to the rest of the European funds that will flow in, the government is betting, among other things, on establishing a fee to strengthen the reserve for dealing with natural disasters. As the head of the Prime Minister’s Economic Office, Alex Patelis, said on Thursday, the fee will be fairly distributed.
However, sources from the National Economy and Finance Ministry indicate that this fee will not be of decisive importance in meeting the needs against natural disasters. “It will be a light measure,” said a source.
