Approval of new RRF tranches

The European Commission is due to announce on Friday the approval of a second installment amounting to €3.56 million from the Reconstruction and Recovery Fund to Greece, following a request submitted by the government at the end of September.

The tranche consists of €1.7 billion in grants and €1.8 billion in loans. In fact, the original plan did not envisage disbursement of the loan in this tranche, but a loan of €1.8 billion was also approved as Greece achieved the relevant milestones ahead of the planned schedule. . Loan milestones concerned the activation of InvestEU, the activation of the equity investment fund programme, and the securitization of loans of at least €586 million.

Greece is estimated to become the third country after Spain and Italy to approve a second tranche of the Recovery Fund. Greece has already collected her €4 billion as an upfront payment in 2021 and her €3.5 billion as the first installment last April.

The approval was actually announced on Thursday by European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Sinas during a meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mysotakis, with a second installment coming and Greece entering the Recovery Fund’s Champions League. He said he was participating.

Meanwhile, a new deal was signed on Thursday between the government and the European Investment Bank. It manages an additional €400 million of his resources through the European Investment Fund (EIF) to implement investments in support of SMEs.

New support in the context of InvestEU, as announced by the EIB, with the aim of giving Greek SMEs preferential access to financing, while at the same time providing incentives for investment in climate change and digital transition projects. is provided.

According to Deputy Finance Minister Thodoros Skylakakis, this particular deal could bring in €1.5 billion to local SMEs through the use of related guarantee tools.