The European Commission on Friday announced that it was temporarily suspending payment of 13.5 million euros from Community funds to Greece, as a precaution against the possibility that the assignment of public works contracts in the country had been skewed by the existence of a construction cartel.
In a letter, the Commission notified Greek authorities of its decision to temporarily suspend payments from Cohesion Funds linked to specific infrastructure projects in Greece, following the Greek Competition Commission’s announcement on May 17 about the existence of a construction-sector cartel.
It said the temporary suspension of payments was a “formal procedure” until there was confirmation that EU spending was not misdirected, in the framework of protecting the EU budget. The procedure allows member-states to provide more information and, if necessary, to take any measures required for the payments from Community funds to resume.
A Commission spokesperson noted that the suspension concerned a very small sum and will resume once Greek authorities “send a satisfactory reply to the European Commission’s letter” and supply additional information on this case.
Greece is to receive 20 billion euros from the European structural and investments funds from 2014 to 2020.
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