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By Penny Bouloutza & Evgenia Tzortzi
The Development Ministry is trying to make the best possible use of European Union funds to bolster growth by including feasible projects in the funding framework and scrapping those that have remained idle, Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis stated on Tuesday.
In a joint press conference with Health Minister Andreas Loverdos, Chrysochoidis presented the implementation course of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and claimed that the acceleration achieved has led to the absorption of 27 percent of the funds for the period up to 2013. The 1,852 new projects included add up to some 4 billion euros, while the active contracts amount now to 8.2 billion euros.
In the context of the effort to inject some much-needed liquidity into the market, negotiations with the European Commission and the European Investment Bank are close to completion regarding the creation of funds that will release resources for small and medium-sized enterprises and infrastructure projects. Chrysochoidis and European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn are likely to make formal announcements on the subject next week.
A crucial key to the success of the program is the improvement in the efficiency of ministries and local authorities in the realization of the co-funded growth activities. To this end the Development Ministry has approved of technical support amounting to 50,000 euros for each municipality of the country, Chrysochoidis and Loverdos announced on Tuesday.
That support extends to the health sector, too, with the approval of a new program of technical support for the rapid implementation of health projects, amounting to 1.5 million euros. The funds will be distributed to the country’s seven regional health authorities, the Hellenic National Center for Emergency Assistance (EKAV) and 50 out of the country’s 82 hospitals, to secure specialized services such as engineers, accountants etc. EKAV and each regional health authority will get 60,000 euros as of January 2012, while each hospital will receive 20,000 euros.
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