ECOFIN to approve Cyprus’ €1.2 billion Recovery and Resilience Plan on Monday

The European Finance Ministers will approve Cyprus €1.2 billion Recovery and Resilience Plan in a scheduled videoconference to be held on Monday.

The Cypriot plan is included in the second batch of national recovery and resilience plans approved by the European Commission and are scheduled to be approved by ECOFIN.

The Cypriot plan provides for €1 billion in grants and €0.2 billion in loans provided the EU under the Next Generation EU package launched by the EU in a bid to boost the recovery and resilience of the EU members from the Covid pandemic.

According to the finance ministry’s estimates, these funds are expected to mobilise a further €1.4 billion in private investments, estimated to boost the island’s GDP growth by a total of 7% for the period of 2002 to 2026 and by a cumulative 16.5% in the next 20 years. The Ministry also estimates that the Plan implementation will boost employment by 1% in the next two years, 3% in the next five years and by 6% in the next twenty years.

The disbursements are linked with time-bound reforms. With the approval of the plan Cyprus will receive a fist instalment amounting to €120 million.

Furthermore, the Cypriot plan includes 58 reforms and 76 investment actions with 41% of the plan’s total funds amounting to €5 billion earmarked for the green transition and 23% or €282 million allocated to digital transition. The EU regulations stipulate that national plans should earmark at least 37% of the total funds to the green transition and 20% to digitisation.