Brussels to get projects going

Major construction projects in Greece are in for a lifeline as the European Commission intends to allow the disbursement of community resources as guarantees for the funding of the stagnated public works.

Sources put the amount of resources, expected to be used as collateral, at 1 billion euros, forming part of the 15 billion euros that is alotted to Greece in Structural Funds in the context of the National Strategic Reference Framework and remains unused.

The decision, which entails a change to the regulations of Structural Funds will now have to be put for approval to the European Council and the European Parliament, so as to be implement in early 2012.

The guarantees will be used for the issuing of loans either from the European Investment Bank or from other lenders in order to provide the Greek economy with the liquidity it desperately needs, as it will allow for the realization of major infrastructure projects that have not proceeded at all in the last few months