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Fátima Taboada López

Intern

The sixth activity report of the Task Force for Greece has been published, covering the period from October 2013 to January 2014. The Task Force for Greece supports the Greek authorities in the implementation of the economic reform programme linked to the financial assistance programme in the country and helps them make the best possible use of the Structural and Cohesion Funds of the European Union.

The result of the report is that Greece is accelerating the implementation of major reforms to strengthen competition in the economy, the modernization of the public administration and the better use of the European Union funds. That is why the European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund as well as other international organizations will continue to support Greece on its way to growth and recovery.

Greece is changing for the better but both health and employment require much effort. “Nothing will come from Heaven,” pointed out the leader of the Task Force. However, the expectations are that Greece will achieve positive development with the technical assistance and will stop the rise in unemployment. The report notes that there has been significant progress in the area of corruption and the fight against tax evasion and money laundering, and defines as very positive the legislative change in the health sector achieved through the law on the purchaser/provider split of the National Sickness Fund passed last February.

For instance, the training programme in combating money laundering had 700 participants. The Task Force also helped in the preparation of a law on a registry of bank accounts, which was set up at the end of January. Technical assistance was offered in order to improve the capacity of the Financial Intelligence Unit. 1,446 cases of suspected tax evasion have now been reported to the authorities, 405 cases have been sent to the Prosecutor´s Office and assets worth 170 million euro have been frozen since the beginning of 2012. An anti-fraud strategy related to the Structural Funds has also been developed.

The reforms have the approval of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which they consider essential but they also insist on improving the income collection system. Improving the functioning of the tax administration is very important in order for it to enable the Greek authorities to increase public revenue. As for the income administration, there has been progress in terms of re-organising the structure of the General Secretariat for Public Revenue through a new Fraud Investigation Department.

The Task Force was created in September 2011. It coordinates the technical assistance in 12 activity domains, each of which has its own projects and they are as follows: acceleration of cohesion policy projects; financial institutions/access to financing; administrative reform; revenue administration and management of public finance; anti-money laundering and anti-corruption; business environment; public health; reform of the judicial system; labour market and social security; asylum and migration; privatisation and land registry; and network industries and services.