Nicosia: The European Commission endorsed on Monday a positive preliminary assessment of Cyprus’s fourth payment request for £75.9 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.
According to Cyprus News Agency, following its assessment of the payment request, submitted by Cyprus on 18 December 2024, the Commission has preliminarily concluded that Cyprus has satisfactorily completed the 23 milestones and targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision for the fifth instalment.
As noted, the payment request supports 11 reforms and 12 investments that will benefit citizens and businesses in Cyprus, focusing on expanding online government services, improving corporate trust through the introduction of a transparent beneficial ownership registry, and digitalising healthcare services notably in a cross-border context. The reforms and investments will also simplify the issuance and transfer of title deeds as well as implement digital trade solutions to ease business transactions.
It is added that flagship measures in this payment request include a reform to enhance the supervision of Insurance and Pension Funds, with Cyprus having made the first step by developing and implementing a set of tools for enhancing the supervision of pension funds and insurance companies, and an investment to enhance the supervisory capacity of Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, with Cyprus having implemented a new digital system to better monitor financial transactions, directly linked to European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) centralized platform.
The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Cyprus’s fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion. The payment to Cyprus can take place following the EFC’s opinion, and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.
The Cypriot recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures. The plan will be financed by £1.020 billion in grants and £200 million in loans, the statement concludes.