EU fund absorption quadruples in late 2019

Payments from the European Union’s Partnership Agreement for the Development Framework, known in Greek as ESPA, amounted to 32.7 percent of public spending over 2019, a statement by the Development Ministry noted on Friday. When the Agricultural Development Program is included, the payments represent a 35.8 percent share.

In the August-December 2019 period the share of ESPA expenditure increased by 8 percent, which was four times the rise recorded in the first seven months of the year.

“After the July 7 election we received a very difficult situations at ESPA,” Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis said. “Despite the previous administration’s fake triumph talk, Greece was among the last few countries in terms of absorption of resources, with programs that have committed too much in funds that we cannot manage easily running a serious risk of losing money, according to a letter by the competent EU commissioner,” the minister added.

“From the day we took over and up to the end of the year, we almost achieved four times the absorption rate of the period from January 1 to July 7, 2019,” Georgiadis said, pledging to continue this effort: “We do not have the right to miss out on a single euro.”