EU leaders are expected to endorse Commission`s proposal to help Greece with the EU structural funds
Ralitsa Kovacheva, June 23, 2011
The European Commission expects the EU leaders to endorse the proposal of Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, EU structural funds to be used in support of Greece, euinside has learned. Greece has a great need for technical assistance, because it suffers from a lack of administrative capacity to absorb EU funds - out of the 20 billion euros, allocated to Greece in the current financial period, (2007-2013) the country has utilised only a quarter. The indicators are comparable to those of Bulgaria and Romania, but they have joined the EU soon, a Commission official explained. According to him, without amending the current legislation, EU funding may be increased from 80 to 85% and the co-financing won't be a problem.
It is also expected in the Council's conclusions a message to be included to the Greek political parties to reach consensus on the economic programme. However, we cannot expect some big news regarding the Greek case, because there is a clear timetable: first -the outcome of the vote on the economic programme in the Greek Parliament on Tuesday and then a meeting of eurozone finance ministers is scheduled on July 3rd.
| © euinside
| © European Union
| © The Council of the European Union