Greek plan a hard sell to EU

The utilization of the loans Greece will receive via the Next Generation EU fund, amounting to 12.7 billion euros, for the financing of private investments is proving one of the hardest fields of negotiation for the approval of the Greek recovery plan, as talks are ongoing.

The Greek plan generally received positive feedback, as it was among the most detailed the European Commission had received. However, the proposals for the use of the EU loans for private investments constitute a Greek "innovation" that will take a great effort to pass the test of European bureaucracy, according to sources.

In a video conference on Thursday, EU officials proposed that the government passes the loans on to private enterprises, but only via European lenders such as the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the Invest EU project (also known...