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having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 (1),

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having regard to the communication from the Commission of 15 July 2015 entitled ‘A new start for jobs and growth in Greece’(COM(2015)0400),

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having regard to Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 October 2015 amending Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 as regards specific measures for Greece (2),

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having regard to Regulation (EU) 2017/825 on the establishment of the Structural Reform Support Programme for the period 2017 to 2020 (SRSP) (3),

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having regard to the Commission staff working document of 19 September 2016 on ex post evaluations of the ERDF and Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 (SWD(2016)0318),

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having regard to the report from the Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Development on the use of the amounts under Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 (programming period 2007-2013) (4),

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having regard to the Oral Question to the Commission on the Implementation of Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 on specific measures for Greece (O-000100/2017 – B8-0001/2018),

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having regard to Rule 52 of its Rules of Procedure, as well as to Article 1(1)(e) of and Annex 3 to the decision of the Conference of Presidents of 12 December 2002 on the procedure for granting authorisation to draw up own-initiative reports,

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having regard to the report of the Committee on Regional Development (A8-0244/2018),

A.

whereas cohesion policy is an expression of solidarity and the main investment instrument of the EU, covering all regions and reducing disparities; whereas the importance of its added value and its flexibility during the economic and financial crisis have been confirmed on several occasions; whereas, with the existing budgetary resources, cohesion policy has contributed to maintaining much-needed public investment opportunities, helped to prevent the crisis from worsening and enabled Member States and regions to adopt tailor-made responses in view of increasing their resilience to unexpected events and external shocks;

B.

whereas support between 2007 and 2015 from the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund (CF) in Greece amounted to EUR 15.8 billion, equivalent to some 19 % of total government capital expenditure;

C.

whereas the economic and financial crisis had led to persistently negative growth rates in Greece, which could not be addressed by the three international rescue packages, as well as to serious liquidity problems and a lack of public funds;

D.

whereas Greece and the Greek islands have been – and continue to be – particularly hard-hit by the refugee and migration crisis and are under great pressure from the increased inflows of migrants and refugees, resulting in a huge blow to local economic activity, particularly in the area of tourism;

E.

whereas between 2007 and 2013, Greece’s GDP declined by 26 % in real terms and while the recession came to an end in 2014, growth over the following two years was less than 1 %; whereas the employment rate fell from 66 % to 53 % in 2013, implying that only over half of working-age people were in employment, while unemployment increased from 8.4 % to 27.5 % over the same period, strongly impacting the purchasing power of the Greek population and severely affecting several sectors, including health; whereas, according to the latest Eurostat data, the rate of unemployment stands at 20.8 %, with a high level of youth unemployment;

F.

whereas the Commission and the co-legislators acknowledged in 2015 that Greece has been affected by the crisis in a unique manner, which could have had a severe impact on both the finalisation of the operations under the 2000-2006 and the 2007-2013 operational programmes and the start of the implementation of the 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes;

G.

whereas the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 was intended to provide Greece with liquidity at a crucial moment before the implementation of programmes had come to a halt and necessary investment opportunities had been missed, as substantial amounts would have been recovered in the event of failure to complete projects from the 2000-2006 and the 2007-2013 periods;

H.

whereas Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 set out an additional initial pre-financing for the 2014-2020 programming period, of two instalments of 3.5 % each of the amount of support from the cohesion policy funds and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), as well as the application for the 2007-2013 programming period of a 100 % cofinancing rate to the eligible expenditure and the early release of the last 5 % of remaining EU payments, which should have been retained until the closure of the programmes;

I.

whereas the Regulation was adopted with a view to responding as promptly as possible to a serious crisis situation and ensuring that Greece had sufficient funding to complete the projects under the 2007-2013 programming period and to start implementation under the current period;

J.

whereas according to Article 152(6)(2), Greece had to submit, by the end of 2016, a report to the Commission on the implementation of the provisions related to the application of the 100 % cofinancing rate and to the ceiling for payments to programmes at the end of the programming period;

K.

whereas the EU also paid for 95 % of the total investment cost under the 2007-2013 financing period in Greece (maximum of 85 % otherwise applicable), through the so-called ‘top-up’measure Regulation (EU) No 1311/2011;

L.

whereas a ring-fenced account was put in place in October 2015, to which all funds allocated to the financing of EU-financed projects were transferred in order to ensure that they were used solely for payments to beneficiaries and operations under the operational programmes;

M.

whereas Greece has also received support since 2011 through the Commission’s Task Force for Greece, providing technical assistance for the country’s reform process, and since 2015 through the Structural Reform Support Service providing assistance for the preparation, design, implementation and evaluation of growth-enhancing reforms; whereas Regulation (EU) 2017/825 on the establishment of the Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) for the period 2017 to 2020 entered into force on 20 May 2017 and marked an important moment for the commitments of the Structural Reform Support Service with the interested Member States, including Greece;

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