Eleftheria Paizanou
Nine of the 14 prerequisites of the Recovery Fund have been implemented so far by the Republic to disburse the second tranche from the European Commission, amounting to € 85 million. The Ministry of Finance should forward to the Commission the progress report on the achievement of the milestones for which the country had committed to be implemented by December 31, 2021.
Of the five prerequisites that have not yet been implemented, two of them will have to cross the reef of Parliament first. This is the bill for the establishment and operation of the Anti-Corruption Authority, which after discussions on discussions has been completed and on the 17th of the month it will be put to a vote in the Plenary.
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Also, a week earlier, the bill on lobbying will be taken to the Plenary, which is indirectly linked to the milestones of the second installment.
The issue of bills to strengthen the legal framework for dealing with non-performing loans is still open. Opposition parties have expressed strong reservations about the bills, which have tabled an amendment restricting the access of credit facility management companies to the Artemis database and the Land Registry database to obtain information on guarantors, collateral providers. and related parties. A compromise solution is also close to this issue, as in the coming days the revised texts of the bills will be forwarded to the Parliament, from which the collateral providers and the related persons will be removed from the control of their data by the loan managers. There will also be protection of the guarantors, however, the wording of the restrictions in relation to the control that will be done to them remains. The goal of the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance is to reach a consensus on the bills, so that they can be put to a vote before the end of the month.
Outstanding issues at the Ministry of Energy
At the same time, two projects have not been implemented by the Ministry of Commerce, which is expected to announce them within the month. These are plans to promote energy efficiency investments in small and medium-sized enterprises, municipalities, communities and the wider public sector, as well as to encourage the use of RES and energy saving measures in public and local authorities, to address and adapt to climate change. change
In addition, the monitoring information system was left behind, however in the next few days its basic operation is expected to be ready.
The General Director of the General Directorate of Development of the Ministry of Finance, Theodosis Tsiolas, stated to “F” that the procedures are moving in the right direction, despite the fact that time is pressing on the Republic. As he said, there is close cooperation of the government with the Parliament, as well as with the technocratic group, in which representatives of the parties participate. He also pointed out that when the pending bills are approved by the Parliament (for MES, the Anti-Corruption Authority and lobbying) the way is open for the disbursement of the second installment, pointing out that in the coming days the other milestones are expected to be implemented. the government. According to Mr. Tsiolas, although the reform of the Judiciary and the Local Self-Government are not included in the prerequisites of December, the bills should be approved immediately by the Parliament, so that the implementation of the actions undertaken by the Republic can begin. It should be noted that last month the Cypriot authorities launched in Brussels the Action Plan to reduce arrears by 20% by June 2024 and by 40% by June 2026.
What happened
The nine prerequisites that have been implemented to date for the disbursement of € 85 million, according to Mr. Tsiolas, relate, among other things, to the independence of the Transmission System Operator from the EAC. The law was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic last October.
Also, the goal of the reform of the Public Service has been achieved, with the approval last month of the legislative package by the Parliament. The laws introduce a new framework for the evaluation and selection of candidates to fill vacancies in the public service and new regulations for the evaluation of employee performance.
At the same time, a few weeks ago, legislation was passed to protect whistleblowers who report bad practices and acts of corruption. In accordance with the commitments given by the Cypriot authorities to the European Commission, the rules for the transmission and distribution of electricity were amended and published.
In addition, the goal of strengthening the circular economy in industry has been achieved. The Action Plan was approved by the Council of Ministers last June. It concerns the action plan for electronic skills (e-skills) and the plan for the promotion of RES and energy efficiency measures in homes. The second plan was announced last April.
A few months ago, the equipment for reinforcement of existing isotopic databases of Cypriot food and beverages was installed, in order to ensure the identity of the products, through the development of a platform using Blockchain technology. Based on the relevant data, the infrastructure of the courts was upgraded.
They are preparing for the rest
When Cyprus gets rid of the prerequisites of the second tranche and receives the money from the EU, the technocratic group, which includes ministry officials and party representatives, will meet again in March to finalize the milestones to be achieved by summer. According to the plans, another 18 milestones should be implemented by June 30th, five of which are related to legislation, so that the country will receive another € 85 million from the Commission in August. In addition, by December 31st, another 30 milestones will have to be implemented, of which four targets will have to be approved by Parliament, for Cyprus to receive another € 115m by February 2023.
Of course, other milestones will follow, which must be achieved by the end of 2026, for the country to receive the total amount of € 1.2 billion from the Recovery Fund. In total, 58 reforms and 75 investments will have to be implemented. It is recalled that last September, after the signing of the relevant financing agreement, the Republic received the first installment, amounting to € 156.8 million, from the Commission, which accounted for 13% of the total amount and was not linked to prerequisites.
