With the approval of the Plan amendment and incorporation of the new REPowerEU Fund, an additional advance of €21m was received today – A further €152.2m is expected within the first quarter of 2024
The European Commission announced on Thursday the pre-financing payment of 20.9 million euros in financing for Cyprus from the REPowerEU program for energy savings and the promotion of clean energy, within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism.
The aim of the pre-financing from all the funds provided for in the REPowerEU chapter under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, is to give impetus to the implementation of the key investments and reforms recorded in the plan.
REPowerEU concerns measures to save energy, boost renewable energy production, and diversify energy supply to wean the EU off Russian fossil fuels following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but also in the context of the green transition.
The pre-funding is paid in one or two installments, and can cover up to 20% of the additional funds of each country's REPowerEU capital funding. If the pre-financing is paid in two installments, the second installment must be paid within 12 months of the payment of the first installment.
At the same time as Cyprus, the Commission also announced the payment of pre-financing with 145.1 million euros to Belgium and 585.1 million euros to Croatia in grants and loans. The pre-financing payment of EUR 25.4 million to Finland, EUR 158.7 million to Greece, EUR 551.2 million to Italy, EUR 26.9 million to Latvia and EUR 288 million to Romania in grants were also approved, while another 340 million euros were approved in loans for Spain.
The disbursements follow the approval by the Council of the EU of the revised plans of the countries in question, to which capital for REPowerEU was added and the signing of financing agreements. The Council has approved the REPowerEU funds of all 23 Member States that have so far submitted amended national plans.
Greetings from the Minister of Finance
Today's announcement by the European Commission for the payment to Cyprus of an amount of €20.9 million from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, as an advance payment for the implementation of the REPowerEU Measures, was welcomed by the Minister of Finance Makis Keravnos.
According to an announcement by the Ministry of Finance, Cyprus has secured an amount of €104 million to finance the new REPowerEU Fund within the framework of the national Recovery and Resilience Plan "Cyprus – tomorrow", for the implementation of additional reforms, as well as new or upgraded incentive plans for energy upgrading, as well as for further promotion of electric mobility, with an implementation horizon of 2026.
The announcement states that the Minister thanks the European Commission for the close cooperation, all partners, as well as the Implementing Agencies of our national Plan and "assures that the Government's efforts will continue to achieve all the goals and milestones on time and on the basis of the agreed timetables".
According to the Ministry of Finance, to date an amount of €263 million has been collected from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism and with the completion of the required checks that are now being carried out by the EU institutions on the application for the payment of the 2nd and 3rd tranches, submitted by Republic of Cyprus on December 15, 2023, another €152.2 million will be collected.
He adds that in 2024 two payment requests will be submitted for the 4th and 5th installments for the collection of €197 million.
The Ministry of Finance also states that, in total, the collections (€415 million) from the Recovery and Resiliency Mechanism from 2021 until the first quarter of 2024 are as follows:
With the submission and approval of the initial Plan in 2021, the advance payment of €157 million was disbursed.
With the achievement of the first 14 milestones, the 1st tranche was disbursed in 2022, amounting to €85 million.
With the approval of the modification of the Plan and the integration of the new REPowerEU Capital, an additional advance payment of €21 million was received today and with the completion of the 38 milestones of the 2nd and 3rd installments and after the EU audits are completed, the disbursement of an amount of €152 is expected, 2 million within the first quarter of 2024.