Negotiations on the new programming period of the NSRF, worth a total of €49.5 billion, are expected to conclude in the second half of 2027, as Greece takes over the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis said this at the “Green Deal Greece 2026” conference, organised by the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE) in collaboration with economix.gr for the sixth consecutive year, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. During a discussion, he set out in detail the resources available for the period ahead, after the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Mr Papathanasis first highlighted the contribution of funding instruments to the green transition, citing the Recovery and Resilience Facility as a key example. Of its total €36 billion in resources, 37.5% went towards the green transition, he said.
“We achieved something that even our EU partners questioned, because we set it as a national target”, he said, adding that the process helped projects reach maturity in a different way from the past, when Greece ranked low in the relevant rankings.
Co-operation with the Technical Chamber of Greece played an important role in this effort, he said, with the chamber treated as a partner from the outset of the discussions. “We would not have achieved these targets without the support of engineers and certified auditors”, he stressed.
“The projects that moved forward included measures to save and store energy, electricity interconnections, urban plans, as well as the digitisation of one billion pages of public-sector records”, he added.
The deputy minister said the resources available were sufficient to continue the work of the 2021-2027 programming period, while funding instruments for the period ahead exceed the Recovery and Resilience Facility in scale.
Specifically, €10 billion in national resources was allocated in 2021-2025, while €23 billion is earmarked for the five years from 2026 to 2030, he said. In addition, three new funding programmes are under way: the Social Climate Fund, with a budget of €5.4 billion; the Modernisation Fund, worth €1.7 billion; and the Decarbonisation Fund, worth €1.6 billion.
These resources total about €8 billion, and include support for the energy costs of vulnerable households and businesses. More than 1.5 million Greek citizens and 70,000 businesses are expected to benefit from the measures, according to Mr Papathanasis.
He also highlighted the Recovery and Resilience Facility’s overall impact on the economy. Of the €36 billion in available resources, €18 billion has generated investment worth €46 billion, including the leverage of private capital, he said. This investment activity is under way and is expected to continue until 2029.
As for the NSRF, €8 billion of the €26 billion allocated for the current period has been absorbed to date. He estimated that Greece would rank among the top six of the 27 member states when the new ranking is published next year.
As he explained, assessments are carried out for each fund rather than for countries as a whole, while the pace of fund absorption accelerates as the country approaches the final stretch of the programming period.
Finally, speaking about energy costs, he stressed that natural gas remains a transitional fuel, while renewable energy sources are the future.
“We are right to move towards the green transition. We must not stop”, he said, stressing that the resources available and investment can support and complete this effort.
“The aim”, he said, “is for the funding to reach society, people’s daily lives and the economy as quickly as possible”.