The European Commission issued a positive opinion on Monday 28 February on Italy and Greece’s requests for interim payments at the end of 2021 under the NextGeneration EU Recovery Plan.
The Italian government is asking for €21 billion (€10 billion in grants and €11 billion in loans) from the European Union to finance its national recovery plan.
In order to release this tranche of aid, Italy had to fulfil 51 measures and targets in its plan. This includes reforms in the areas of public administration, public procurement, public finance, the labour market, digitalisation (Transition 4.0 plan) and public expenditure control.
See the Commission’s assessment: https://aeur.eu/f/j4
Greece. The Greek government is asking for a €3.6 billion aid tranche (€1.7 billion in grants and €1.9 billion in loans).
In return, the reforms and investments to be undertaken concern energy efficiency, electric mobility, waste management, the labour market, taxation, the business environment, health, the electric vehicle market, public transport and the control and audit system in the implementation of the Greek national plan.
For both plans, the EU Council’s Economic and Financial Committee is asked to give an opinion on the Commission’s assessment within 4 weeks so that the Commission can release the financial assistance tranche.
See the Commission’s assessment: https://aeur.eu/f/j5 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)