The request of the Republic of Cyprus to amend the Recovery and Resilience Plan of Cyprus was submitted to the European Commission today, September 1, 2023
Today, September 1, 2023, the request of the Republic of Cyprus to amend the Recovery and Resilience Plan of Cyprus was submitted to the European Commission. “Its amendment with the request submitted today, concerns the introduction of the new REPowerEU fund with a budget of €104 million, to strengthen the energy sector and interventions that can directly and substantially contribute to the Union's goal of its energy independence from Russia , and in the modification of Measures for cases where the achievement of milestones/goals in the SAA becomes impossible due to objective circumstances, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant Regulation” states the Ministry of Finance in its announcement.
The announcement in detail
Our national Plan was approved by the European institutions on July 28, 2021. Its amendment with the request submitted today, concerns the introduction of the new REPowerEU fund with a budget of €104 million, to strengthen the energy sector and interventions that can contribute directly and substantially to the objective of the Union for its energy independence from Russia, and to the modification of Measures for cases where the achievement of milestones/goals in the SAA becomes impossible due to objective circumstances, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant Regulation.
< p>The new Chapter RePowerEU in the SAA, strengthens the energy and transport sectors and a total of nine measures were proposed for inclusion, five existing SAA measures scaled up, and four new measures (investments and reforms). These measures aim to reduce Cyprus' energy needs and, by extension, to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels, through the strengthening of investments in energy efficiency improvements of the building stock, the promotion of clean transport, the acceleration of the penetration of renewable energy sources, as well as providing incentives for the development of new and innovative technologies to effectively address existing bottlenecks/bottlenecks in the energy system and accelerate the green transition.
After evaluating the progress of the implementation of the Plan to date and the identification of cases where the achievement of the milestones/goals in the SAA becomes impossible in time due to objective circumstances, through this amendment an attempt is made, among other things, to address the delays and problems that were presented in milestones and targets concerning the 2nd and 3rd payment application, so that they can be submitted after the official approval of the amendment.
Finally, it is noted that the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan (SRP) has a total budget of €1, 2 billion and concerns Financing and Loan Agreements, amounting to €1 billion and €200 million respectively. The Plan is on track for implementation, as all its Measures have been activated and a total of €242m has already been disbursed. (€157m as pre-financing and €85m with the fulfillment of the 14 milestones of the 1st tranche of the Plan). With this amendment, the way is “opened” for the submission of the 2nd and 3rd payment application after the official approval of the amendment.
