Greece’s recovery and resilience plan

Following an unprecedented crisis due to the pandemic, Greece’s recovery and resilience plan responds to the urgent need of fostering a strong recovery and making Greece ready for the future. The reforms and investments in the plan will help Greece become more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions. To this end, the plan consists of 106 investment measures and 68 reforms. They will be supported by €17.77 billion in grants and €12.73 billion in loans. 37.5% of the plan will support climate objectives and 23.3% of the plan will foster the digital transition.

The transformative impact of Greece’s plan is the result of a strong combination of reforms and investments, which address the specific challenges of Greece. The reforms address bottlenecks to lasting and sustainable growth, while investments accelerate the transition towards a low-carbon, digital and more inclusive economy. In particular, the plan intends to facilitate the decarbonisation of the Greek economy, modernise and digitalise public administration including by improving the tax administration and justice systems, promote the innovation capacity, digital uptake and resilience of key economic sectors, and upgrade health care, education, and active labour market policies. All reforms and investments have to be implemented within a tight time frame, as the Regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Facility foresees they have to be completed by August 2026.

The plan will foster economic growth and create jobs. These estimates do not include the possible positive impact of structural reforms, which can be substantial. The plan will lift Greece’s gross domestic product by 2.1% to 3.3% by 2026. This boost to the economy will bring up to 62 000 citizens into jobs. Greece will benefit significantly from the Recovery and Resilience Plans of other Member States, for instance through exports. These spill-over effects account for 0.3 percentage points of gross domestic product in 2026. This demonstrates the added value of joint and coordinated action at the European level.

+ 2.1-3.3%

Impact of NextGenerationEU on Greece's gross domestic product by 2026

+ 62,000

Jobs by 2026

0.3%

Gross domestic product benefits thanks to other Member States’ recovery and resilience plans in 2026

When designing the plan, Greek authorities consulted national and regional social partners and stakeholders, while pursuing a close dialogue with the Commission ahead of the formal submission of the plan on 27 April 2021. On 17 June 2021, the Commission gave its green light to the plan. On this occasion, President von der Leyen symbolically transmitted the Commission’s assessment to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a visit in Athens. The plan was in turn adopted by the Council on 13 July opening the door to its implementation and financing.

Green transition

In the area of climate and environmental policies, Greece faces the challenge of increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix, including by improving the slow take-off of offshore wind parks, while reducing its traditionalreliance on solid fossil fuels. Strong investments are also needed to energy upgrade private and public buildings, promote sustainabletransport andsupport water management.

Key measures for the green transition

The plan supports the green transition through investments of €1.3 billion in the energy-efficient renovation of more than 100,000 residences, including for low-income households. To promote sustainable and multi-modal transport, the plan envisages the deployment of more than 8,000 electric charging points and 220 green urban transport busses in Athens and Thessaloniki, an important investment programme in railways and a thorough reform of the sector. Investments of more than €600 million in reforestation, biodiversity, flood mitigation and irrigation network upgrades aim to support environmental protection and arecomplemented by a waste management reform to promote sustainable landfilling and recycling and improve governance.

Example project: Promoting electro-mobility

Greece’s recovery and resilience plan include measures aiming to make mobility cleaner, smarter, safer and fairer. It includes a reform aiming to establish a conducive legal framework to organise Greece’s emerging electric vehicles’ market and to provide appropriate incentives. This reform is complemented by an investment in the installation of more than 8,000 electric charging stations in key urban and locations and points of interest, such as airports, motorways, ports and in parking areas, across Greece.

Digital transition

Digital challenges for Greece include a shortfall in connectivity, a lack of digital skills (both at basic and advanced level), a slow uptake of digital technologies, in particular by SMEs, and a low level of digital public sector services.

Key measures for the digital transition

Greece’s recovery and resilience plan supports the digital transition with investments and reforms in the digitalisation of public administration and private sector companies, in connectivity, and in digital skills. It will invest €160 million for the development of 5G networks, €1.3 billion in the digital transformation of the public sector and another €375 million for the digitalisation of businesses, promoting the integration of digital technologies in SMEs. Furthermore, the plan will invest more than €500 million to promote the digital transformation of the education and health system, while nearly €750 million will be invested in digital upskilling.

Example project: Digital transformation of education

More than 500,000 school pupils and students all over Greece have already received vouchers for the purchase of IT equipment (tablets, laptops, desktops) facilitating the digital transformation of the education system and the development of digital skills.. Beneficiaries are aged 4-24 years and belong to low-income families. Furthermore, by 31 December 2025, Greece will install at least 36,000 interactive learning systems in classrooms of primary and secondary schools in all over the country.

Economic and social resilience

Key macroeconomic challenges for the Greek economy include a high government debt, incomplete external rebalancing and high non-performing loans, in a context of high unemployment and low productivity growth. A high regulatory burden, red tape and a slow and inefficient justice system hamper private investments, weighing on potential growth and employment.

Key measures in reinforcing economic and social resilience

The plan reinforces economic and social resilience with reforms and investments fostering labour market activation and upskilling, modernising public administration, and simplifying the regulatory framework. €12.7 billion will be made available in the form offavourable loans to support private investments, complemented by a set of financial sector reforms to address private indebtedness and strengthen capital markets. Furthermore, €740 million will be invested inredesigning and strengthening active labour market policies to increase full-time employment, including for long-term unemployed and disadvantaged people, while another €159 million will support thecreation of more than 53,000 new early childcare places. Greece will also introduce a comprehensive national public health programme which will include the expansion of prevention services.

Example project: Digital Transformation of the Tax and Customs Administration

The project’s objective is to achieve the digital transformation of revenue administration and services, which is expected to strengthen the capacity of the independent revenue authority and enhance its overall performance. It consists of the upgrade and interoperability of relevant systems, as well as further digitalisation and automation of processes. The project aims to enhance the quality of services provided to individuals and enterprises, and ultimately make taxes more growth friendly, thus improving tax administration and tax collection.

The plan is consistent with relevant country-specific challenges and priorities identified in the European Semester, the annual cycle of coordination and surveillance of the EU’s economic policies. For a detailed explanation of the European Semester see the following link: The European Semester explained | European Commission (europa.eu)