site.btaGreece Faces Cohesion Policy Challenges Despite High Absorption Rate of Funds

Greece has been among the major beneficiaries of funds under the EU cohesion policy since its inception in the late 1980s. Over the years, this country has developed the mechanisms needed to allow it to absorb EU resources in a timely manner, said George Andreou, Assistant Professor in European Union Policies at the School of Political Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in a podcast of the Hellenic Foundation for European&Foreign Policy.

In December 2023, the importance of the EU cohesion policy for Greece’s development was underscored at a forum in Athens dedicated to the policy’s prospects after 2027. Addressing the event as quoted by his ministry, Dimitris Skalkos, Secretary General for Public Investment and National Strategic Reference Framework at the Greek Ministry of National Economy and Finance noted that "any debate on the future of cohesion policy should begin with reaffirmation of its role as a key instrument for the economic, social and territorial cohesion of European regions" and that greater emphasis should be placed on the results achieved rather on the procedures.

Greece’s National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said that the EU cohesion policy should be focused on the three main challenges that whole European continent is facing - competitiveness, migration and demographic problems.

In the podcast, Andreou also stressed on the need to focus on the results achieved, not just the procedures. He said that the absorption rate of funds should not be mixed up with the effective implementation of projects, because it is one thing to "spend" legally and absorb without breaking the rules, but it is another matter how effective this spending is. According to Andreou, over time, Greece has built the capacity to absorb resources in a timely manner, but the actual benefit of the activities performed is still an issue. In his words, on the one hand the problem is the administrative centralization, and on the other - the administrative fragmentation, which negatively affects the coordination between the structures involved.

Currently, the Greek government is facing many challenges, including the completion of projects from the previous programming period 2014 - 2020, the preparation and the implementation of the Recovery Plan, and thirdly, the planning of the new programming period. According to Andreou, it is practically impossible to achieve these three objectives at the same time, which is why the implementation of Greece’s new National Strategic Reference Framework has taken a back seat and the activities under the projects essentially commence as early as 2024.