ATHENS — The Greek government schedules to submit its plans for the exploitation of the EU Recovery Fund in March, Deputy Finance Minister Theodoros Skylakakis said on Thursday. Speaking in Parliament, Skylakakis said the government's goal was to be able to submit the final draft to the European Commission from mid-March onwards.

He added that this plan will be presented to the Greek Parliament in time. Skylakakis said the Recovery Fund was a "unique opportunity for the country" to retur to recovery when the crisis will beover and underlined the need to achieve financial and social efficiency. "We must mobilize at a maximum level additional private funding," Skylakakis said, adding that EU funding programmes usually need one, two or three years for planning, but in this case the government has to prepare work in 5-6 months.

"It is a tough job and the need for this job to mature is extremely important, since the worst thing that we could do is to talk about projects or programmes that will not be implemented. This programme must be completed in five years or else the money is gone," he noted.