ATHENS — Public consultation on a National Recovery and Stability Plan will begin in November 25, while the final plan is expected to be submitted to EU bodies in the first quarter of 2021 and to be approved in the next quarter when the first release (advance payment) of funds from a Recovery and Resilience Facility is expected, with another release likely to be made in 2021, the state budget said.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility covers investments and programmes (vocational or energy upgrading) along with reforms made since February 2020 onwards, the budget said, adding that the macroeconomic impact of interventions to be made in 2021 will positively affect the country's GDP and public revenue both in 2021 and in 2022 and the years after. React-EU will also have a significant contribution as it will include actions and spending to deal with the repercussions of the pandemic. Funds expected to be received by all the tools from the Next Generation EU mechanism in 2021, including loans, are projected to exceed 5.5 billion euros, the budget noted.