President: Conditions met for second raft of RRF

The conditions for the second instalment from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility have been met, President Nikos Christodoulides has said.

With the cooperation of Parliament, he added, the prerequisites will be completed to make way for the disbursement of the country’s third RRF instalment.

“I approach the recovery and resilience plan as a memorandum, an economic programme that we should implement not because the EU imposes it on us, but for the good of our country, to take advantage of all these opportunities that the EU provides us, and, at the same time, to achieve the green and digital transition,” the President noted.

Christodoulides was addressing the opening of the urban sustainability Hub, "NOUS" Knowledge Hub of Strovolos – U SOLVE Project, in Strovolos, Nicosia.

Referring to the creation of the Hub, he said that it was the result of participation in the U-SOLVE Project, which was funded by the European Cross-Border Cooperation Program “ENI MED 2014-2020”, with a total funding of €3.3 million and in which five other Mediterranean countries participate together with Cyprus.

President Christodoulides said that with this hub, residents and businesses in the area were given the opportunity to participate in the formation of a sustainable urban development model and congratulated the Mayor and at the Municipal Council of Strovolos, expressing the hope that the example would be followed by other municipalities and communities. He noted that the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Institute, participated in the project.

The President also noted the need to adapt the country's economic model to today's conditions and broaden the productive base of the economy, while, an area in which more work was needed, was the commercialisation of research and innovation and that this was one of the Government’s goals within the framework of economic diplomacy.

Concluding, President Christodoulides said that Cyprus wants to make the green and digital transition a reality and that there were many opportunities through the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility.

(Source: CNA, Photo: PIO)