Filenews 15 November 2022 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
On the one hand, the discussions in the Parliament and on the other hand the procedures in the Tender Review Authority, cause obstacles to the implementation of three milestones out of 18, for the disbursement of the second tranche from the Recovery Fund.
The three prerequisites, for which there is some delay, will have to be implemented by the end of December 2022, so that Cyprus can apply to the Commission to receive the money from the EU. The time limits are tight and in less than a month and a half the obstacles that arise will have to be overcome, in order not to repeat the scene with the first tranche, where instead of the Republic submitting the relevant payment application to the European Commission in December 2021, it submitted it in July this year and has not yet received the first €85 million.
For the first tranche, the evaluation by the European Commission is positive and in the coming days the final decision is expected for Cyprus to disburse the money in December.
The three milestones for which there is a delay for the next dose are:
- The bill to facilitate strategic investments, which is being discussed in the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs.
- The massive installation and operation of a smart metering infrastructure (state-of-the-art metering infrastructure) by the distribution system operator (DSO-EAC).
- The creation and operation of four mobile units for reaching out to young people not in education, employment and training. On October 24, the relevant contract was signed but their delivery is pending. As we have been told, the delay in delivery may be due to the situation in Ukraine.
The Ministry of Finance estimates that the three prerequisites will be implemented within the timeframes. It is worth noting that, of the remaining milestones, 8 have been reached and four are in the process of completion.
For the third tranche, a total of 30 milestones should be reached by June 2023 in order to apply. The Minister of Finance, Konstantinos Petrides, in a letter to the Parliament, says that 4 of the 30 milestones will require the approval of the Parliament. One of the milestones has been met with the adoption of the bill on aggressive tax planning. The bill on stranded property buyers, which is being discussed in the Committee on Legal Affairs and should be approved by the end of the year, remains to be approved. It is also the bill that will strengthen the resilience of banking institutions, through the recognition of bonds issued by Cypriot banks as capital stock, thus paying compliance with the MREL obligations (minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities), which have been submitted to the Parliament on October 20th. By the end of 2026, Cyprus is expected to disburse around €1 billion. from the Recovery Fund. Due to the improvement of the economy in 2022, this sum was decreased by €90 million, however, the money will be distributed, with additional resources paid to the Member States, through the new chapter on "RePower EU"
