Structural Fund money for the Community Support Framework in Greece Following recent press reports on the alleged blockage of Structural Fund money for the Community Support Framework (CSF) in Greece, Mr. Millan, European Commissioner for Regional Policies, made the following statement. "There is no question of the Community having blocked St... Following recent press reports on the alleged blockage of Structural Fund money for the Community Support Framework (CSF) in Greece, Mr. Millan, European Commissioner for Regional Policies, made the following statement. "There is no question of the Community having blocked Structural Fund money for programmes or projects in the Greek CSF. At the end of July 1994 the Commission approved 23 programmes for Greece, 13 regional and 10 multi-regional, and these programmes are now being implemented. A small number of multi-regional programmes still remain to be approved, but this should not be interpreted as a blockage by the Community of these programmes. There is a clear commitment by the Greek authorities to overhaul the entire public procurement system in Greece. This has been agreed and is contained in the Greek CSF. This is a major task involving new legislation, with the new system expected to be in operation at the beginning of 1995. In the meantime a number of urgent projects which need to be launched this year have been identified by the Greek authorities and the Commission has agreed to deal with them on an ad hoc basis during this transitional period until the new public procurement system is in place. A number of projects which had been launched already were identified by the Greek authorities in close cooperation with the Commission as requiring improvements in their tender procedures, so as to ensure that they would be effectively implemented and would minimize the risk of experiencing the problems of the past. These projects are the subject of discussions between the Greek authorities and the Commission so as to make improvements in the procedures for procurement within the framework of the Community's public procurement rules. There is no question of the Community having refused to finance investment projects in Greece, it is merely a question of finding the most appropriate solutions to ensure their effective implementation." Countries Greece
