Pavlos Geroulanos, parliamentary representative for Greece's opposition PASOK party, accused the government of failing to complete over 100 projects under the EU recovery fund.
Writing in the Sunday newspaper To Vima tis Kyriakis, Geroulanos said the government dropped more than 100 pledged actions from the national Greece 2.0 plan after failing to meet its own commitments made five years ago.
Geroulanos, who oversees Recovery and Resilience Facility policy for PASOK Movement for Change, stated that the government did not deny any of the more than 100 unfulfilled projects identified by the opposition party. He said ministers merely responded that some of the cancelled initiatives would instead receive funding from the national budget or European Structural and Investment Funds, known in Greece as ESPA.
Geroulanos called that response an admission of failure. He stressed that national and European regional funds are not bottomless piggy banks, warning that using those funds to cover projects meant for the recovery facility will starve other local needs, including schools, hospitals, and flood prevention works.
EU funding and national recovery
The Recovery and Resilience Facility is the European Union's multi-billion-euro post-pandemic financial instrument designed to help member states recover from economic shocks and modernize their economies. Greece's national plan, branded as Greece 2.0, was launched by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis following the coronavirus pandemic to overhaul the country's economic model, upgrade infrastructure, and address social inequalities.
According to Geroulanos, key public infrastructure projects relating to water management, energy networks, broadband internet, and civil protection were removed from the recovery scheme. He argued that the country's economic production model remains unchanged while social, geographical, and generational inequalities continue to widen.
Geroulanos also highlighted financial distribution figures, noting that low-interest loans from the recovery fund have benefited only two percent of Greek businesses. He said small and medium-sized enterprises were left out of the financing program, forcing local communities, citizens, and small firms to bear the cost of delays.
Political opposition in Athens
PASOK, officially known as the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, is one of Greece's primary center-left political parties and currently forms a major parliamentary opposition force to the governing New Democracy party. Geroulanos, a senior PASOK lawmaker and former culture minister, serves as the party's parliamentary spokesperson and leads its monitoring of the European recovery program.
Demands for government accountability
Geroulanos said the government owes the public 100 specific answers explaining why each project was removed, when it will be finished, how it will be funded, and which future projects will lose money as a result.
He pledged that PASOK will continue to apply political pressure, stating that the government must be held accountable to ensure that the current recovery program is not another lost economic opportunity for Greece.
