The European Commission has today disbursed €1 billion from the Recovery Fund to Greece under the grants strand, following the successful completion of the 4th payment request submitted in early June.

Following this development, Greece has now disbursed €18.2 billion from the EIF, an amount that exceeds 50% of the total budget of the National Plan "Greece 2.0," placing Greece in 5th place among the 27 Member States.

The payment request for the grant component was related to the achievement of 20 milestones and targets, which included, among others, the contracting of projects such as the electrical interconnection of the Cyclades, the renovation of the OAKA, the Anti-nero I and II forest protection programs, the improvement of road safety in the road network of municipalities and regions, the upgrading of the safety of the 13 regional airports, as well as reforms such as the codification of the Income Tax Code and the Tax Procedure Code and the upgrading of the justice system.

Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance and responsible for the Recovery and Resilience Fund, Mr. Nikos Papathanasis, said: "The new disbursement of the Recovery and Resilience Fund grants, following the positive assessment by the European Commission of the relevant Greek request, is the culmination of the prudent, decisive, and effective effort of the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and all stakeholders in the implementation of the National Plan "Greece 2.0.". Having now disbursed more than 50% of the total budget allocated to us and having raised Greece even higher in the European ranking of disbursements and absorption of European funds, we continue the reforms that the country needs in order to achieve the goal of double convergence, both in terms of wages with the rest of Europe and in terms of balanced development between our regions."