The official data on the evolution of absorption, the NSRF, the Recovery and Durability Fund and the Public Investment Programme, was presented today (18.7.2024) by the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Mr. Papathanasis stressed the importance of using European resources for the benefit of the Greek economy and society, focusing on strengthening the pro-investment environment and entrepreneurship, but mainly on creating new jobs. As part of the quarterly briefing of public opinion on issues relating to his portfolio, Mr Papathanasis stressed: “The budget of the Public Investment Programme for 2024 amounts to 12.2 billion euros, making it this year’s P.D. the largest in the last 15 years. While there is an annual increase in resources for public investment, by 9%-12% in the two years 2024-2026. The resources of the Hellenic Republic, from 2020 onwards, constitute 5%-7% of the Hellenic Republic. The budget of the National Development Programme is 10.65 billion euros, which by overcommitment reaches 14.69 billion euros. The percentage of registered projects in the U.S. is already 84.61%, while the percentage of legal commitments reaches 57.41%. In the Parliament’s promoted new framework for the operation of the EIC, e-IPA II, among other things, is promoted to upgrade and modernise the information system as well as interoperability through the use of new technologies. Regarding the NSRF, following the full absorption of resources from the 2014-2020 programming period, with emphasis on Regional Operational Programmes across the country, the activation of NSRF Programmes 2021-2027 already ranks Greece in third place of resource absorption in the EU. The resources for the Competitiveness, Environment and Climate Change, Transport, Civil Protection and Cross-border Cooperation Programmes amount to 10, 744 billion euros. And the total funding in the Human Resources and Social Cohesion Programme exceeds 4.16 billion euros. At the same time, Greece has already received 17.9 billion euros from the Recovery and Durability Fund. To which EUR 2.3 billion is expected to be added from the disbursement of the 4th payment request on the loan side in July, and EUR 1 billion from the disbursement of the 4th payment request on the grant side in October. With the resources to be received from the 4th disbursement request, the country will soon be more than 50% of the total budget of the National Plan “Greece 2.0″. In fact, from the resources of the Recovery Fund’s loan component, as shown by a recent study by the European Commission, it is expected that around 5.3% of the country’s GDP will be added from 2022 to 2030. It is worth noting that the Recovery Fund already supports, with funds of EUR 1.4 billion, 353,000 small and medium-sized enterprises on the grant side, and EUR 1.96 billion on the loan side, where 50% of the contracted loans relate to SMEs.”