EU endorses Greece's pandemic recovery spending plan

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The European Union’s top executive on Thursday announced the bloc’s endorsement of Greece’s national spending plan for its share of the EU’s massive pandemic recovery fund.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the approval of Greece’s “recovery and resilience” plan during a visit to Athens. The EU has earmarked 30.5 billion euros ($36.4 billion) of the recovery fund for Greece - 12.7 billion euros in loans and 17.8 billion euros in grants from 2021 to 2026.

“Today, I’m very happy to announce that the European Commission has decided to give its green light to Greece’s recovery and resilience plan, Greece 2.0,” von der Leyen said, standing alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The approval “follows a thorough assessment by the commission” of Greece’s plans, she said.

Mitsotakis said the Greek plan consists of “175 critical investments, works and reforms,” in four sectors: environmental, digital reform, employment and private investment. Greece's plan, he said, “includes works with a significant social and environmental footprint.”

The EU’s 800 billion-euro ($940 billion) recovery fund was set up last year to help countries deal with the significant economic contraction from lockdowns and other measures taken to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our recovery fund program is unmatched in its scale and its ambition,” von der Leyen said. “It is an exceptional response, of course for an exceptional crisis. We are reshaping our continent for decades ahead.”

Von der Leyen’s trip came a day after she visited Spain and Portugal to endorse those countries’ spending plans. So far, 23 of the EU’s 27 member nations have submitted their spending plans to Brussels...