Filenews 21 June 2023 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
The Ministry of Finance has issued a new call to Parliament for the quick approval of the bills that are either pending or will soon be submitted to Parliament and are related to the prerequisites of the second and third instalments of the Recovery Fund.
Once the amendment to the Recovery Plan is approved by the European Commission (EU), the Republic is expected to forward to Brussels the request for the disbursement of both tranches, totalling €200 million.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, George Panteli, in a letter to the Director General of the Parliament, Tasoula Ieronymidou, requests her intervention to expedite the discussions and approve the bills that are milestones for the utilization of the Fund.
For the second tranche, 18 milestones should be implemented and for the third tranche another 30 targets. It is worth noting that, of the 18 milestones of the second tranche, five have not been implemented, two of which concern legislation.
Of the third payment request, two bills are pending approval.
Specifically, Mr. Panteli calls on Parliament to proceed with the completion of the discussion of the bill on the facilitation of strategic investments (the so-called investment law), which has been discussed in the Interior Committee since January 2022. In March this year, the Ministry of Interior revised the bill to facilitate its adoption by the parties.
The bill for the creation of a mechanism to safeguard the interests of real estate buyers and protect them against the seller's obligations to banks should also be passed by Parliament, with the aim of putting an end to the creation of new trapped property buyers. This bill, which was revised last November, is included in the prerequisites of the third tranche and will be discussed again today in the parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs.
In addition, Mr. Panteli calls for the discussion of the bill to be expedited for the definition of specific measures for the reduction of air pollutants and greenhouse gases from road transport. Soon, the Ministry of Transport is expected to promote in Parliament an amended bill (prerequisite of the 5th instalment).
Mr. Panteli asks the Parliament to promote the three bills in plenary as soon as possible.
At the same time, the competent ministry asks Parliament to examine as a matter of priority the bill to introduce a tax exemption for corporate investors investing in innovative businesses. The ministry will submit a new bill, which will implement the recommendations of the European Commission to extend the measure until 2026. The legislation approved by Parliament in July last year provided for the implementation of the measure by the end of 2023.
At the same time, the ministry calls for the bills on urban land consolidation and teleworking to be handled in the same way.
