EU subsidies to go down by 3 billion euros
The further shrinking of European Union subsidies by some 3 billion euros for the current funding period will be the result of the increase in Community contributions to projects in Greece from 85 to 95 percent, for 2014 and 2015, as will be ratified by the upcoming European Council meeting on February 7 and 8.
This will be the third cut in the EU subsidy program, the National Strategic Reference Framework (ESPA), to 21 billion euros up to 2015, from the current level of 24 billion and an original level of 30 billion. So far Greece has only managed to absorb 11.5 billion euros (48 percent of the 24 billion).
Out of some 10,000 projects that have entered the subsidy framework, 181 are considered priority projects and account for half of the whole package’s funding. The government has already appointed project managers to 75 of them in a bid to accelerate their implementation, as they are showing significant delays.
