15 October 2012

European Commission: One year of Task Force for Greece

One year ago, the Task Force for Greece (TFGR) started its operation of supporting the Greek administration in identifying and providing technical assistance (TA) for the country's reform process.

On 12th October 2011, the TFGR's first high-level coordination meeting brought together around 100 representatives of the Greek administration, possible providers of TA and Commission services in Brussels, to coordinate the international support for structural reforms in Greece.

Since then, the Task Force has developed a comprehensive technical assistance programme in 10 policy domains with the support of these providers of technical assistance. The Task Force organises the delivery of technical assistance to support a wide range of structural reforms to be implemented by the Greek government. The technical assistance provided by the Task Force is a resource available to the Greek authorities, as they seek to strengthen their public administration, modernise their regulatory system and lay the foundations for a new growth model based on enterprise and investment.

Following a temporary slow-down during the two election periods before summer, the new government has intensified its efforts in a number of reform areas and the Task Force has now become a solid platform for mobilising technical assistance.

During the first months of operation, the Task Force led an EU-wide effort to identify, together with Greece, the main challenges in implementing reforms for which technical assistance would be needed. Particular efforts were made by domain leaders, which are often Member States assisting Greece in defining concrete road maps for reform. Road maps are then translated into operational projects that the Greek authorities have committed to implement. The main areas are the reform of the public administration, tax administration and public financial management, anti-corruption and judicial reform, the health sector, access to finance for Greek business, and the improvement of the business environment.

By now, around 20 Member States are actively involved in providing technical assistance to Greece; eight of them are also supporting the work through long-term secondment of experts from their national administrations to the Task Force based in Brussels and Athens.

Examples of the TA so far:

Today, the Task Force coordinates an extensive portfolio of technical assistance projects covering 10 policy domains. These are (1) acceleration of cohesion policy projects; (2) access to finance/financial sector; (3) reform of the public administration; (4) budget and taxation including tax administration, public financial management, and anti-money-laundering; (5) anti-corruption; (6) business environment; (7) public health; (8) reform of the judicial system; (9) migration, asylum and borders; (10) labour market and social security.

First discussions on the provision of technical assistance for the privatisation programme are starting, regarding the development of a regulatory framework for the infrastructure needed to facilitate privatisation.

More detailed information on the state of play in different areas of technical assistance is set out in the press release.

© European Commission