The new NSRF was described as "super-weapon" by the political leadership of the Ministry of Development and Investments.This was said during a press conference after the visit of the European Union Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira to the National Gallery.

The Commissioner stressed that the collaborations she had in our country were fruitful, added that all EU countries are trying to recover after the economic crisis and the pandemic and noted that it is really a very important historical era, both for Greece and for Europe, that we will create for the coming years.

Answering questions from journalists about the time when the sectoral programs for the new NSRF will be submitted for approval by the EU., the Minister of Development and Investments, Adonis Georgiadis, noted that although the deadline for submission starts from October 12, because the aim is to approve them as soon as possible, a dialogue is underway with the European agencies in order for the proposals that our country will submit to be as ready as possible.

Α. Georgiadis on the new NSRF

"By the Rules of Procedure, the first day we can table the various sectoral programmes is 12 October. Because it has to be three months after approval. The Commission, again from the regulation, has up to 5 months to adopt these proposals. So theoretically we may reach and 5 months after 12 October. I must say that we have already been in consultation with the Commission and Commissioner services for several weeks now. We are discussing our proposals. We have also agreed today – and I think Mrs Ferreira's proposal is also correct – not to rush to go and testify. But let us mature our proposals in advance with the European agencies. So then it will be easier for them to do their job in terms of approval.

I would like to say this that I, with the services of the European Commission and Mrs Ferreira and with the entire staff, feel very comfortable discussing frankly and seeing what we may have done wrong. I never say we know everything, for God's sake. And let us do it right, so that they, too, can approve more quickly and we can secure the funding for the Greek citizens more quickly.

I believe that with this good spirit of cooperation as we have gone so far, we will have – I am not setting a time limit because that would be like putting a knife to the throat in the Commission and I do not want it – the fastest possible approval after the proper work that needs to be done to comply with all the regulations."

Immediate start of actions

On this issue, the Commissioner agreed on the importance of not taking too long for communication with services and sectoral programmes to be as complete as possible to be adopted, while shortly before, the Secretary of State for Development and Investment Yiannis Tsakiris, he had stated in his introductory remarks, that We are already in the process of submitting the operational programmes, with the aim of starting some of the actions before the end of the year and especially some of the Competitiveness programme that replaces the REIT. A programme for small and medium-sized enterprises, so as not to create a gap in the flow of funding.

He noted that in the new NSRF, which is significantly increased, provision has been made for new operational programs that meet the needs of the time. For example, natural disasters and the digital transition of the private and public sectors. More resources have been earmarked for regional programmes. At the same time, significant simplifications in the flow of procedures are attempted.

For his part, the General Secretary of Public Investments and NSRF, Dimitris Skalkos, stressed that we are living in historic times. For the first time we have a "super-weapon" in our hands, with resources allocated for the first time in our post-war history. As he stressed, every resource of these funds must be used.

Works of culture

The Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, referred in particular to the importance of the new NSRF in cultural projects. As he pointed out approximately €2 billion euros have been directed to culture and more than 1600 projects.

Finally, the Regional Governor of Attica, George Patoulis, referred to the importance of the NSRF for infrastructure projects.