ATHENS – Greece will submit to the European Commission its priorities on exploiting of funds allocated by the Recovery Fund in October, Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Thursday.

In comments made to Mega TV, Staikouras said that the Greek proposals will have two legs: first, dealing with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on income, employment, small- and medium-sized enterprises and public health, and second, the priorities for economic recovery.

The Greek minister said the country, in the framework of the national ownership of the specific program, will seek to offer direct help to households and enterprises and that the government’s will, and not only the Greek one's, was that disbursements from the Recovery Fund happen within 2020. He said that the European Commission’s proposal was "emblematic, fully aligned with the great needs of the European economy, fair and flexible”.

He reiterated that the European Commission's SURE programme will be launched on June 1, with the aim to support employment, as will the borrowing from the European Investment Bank for Greek SMEs. He added that there were credit lines available from the ESM until 2022 but underlined that all economic support measures so far had been funded by national resources.