Made a new jump arrears of the state in March, continuing the growth streak of recent months, which even led to the initiation of infringement cases by European Commissionby sending an appropriate letter of warning and a reasoned opinion last month.

In particular, in March, according to Monthly government data bulletinpublished yesterday Ministry of Financegovernment debt reached 2.5 billion euros, more than 200 million euros more than in February and 800 million euros more than in December 2022.

The main “culprit” of this development of events, according to the Ministry of Finance, are hospitals. Their debt in March amounted to 1.339 billion euros, compared to 909 million euros in December 2022, and in December 2018 it was reduced to 299 million euros.

However, some of this hospital debt is expected to be offset by rebates and rebates that are liabilities of hospital suppliers. Thus, as stated in Stability program for 2023-2026, which Greece submitted last week to the Commission, “net” arrears, ie. after offsetting obligations of suppliers, hospitals and others, in February amounted to 800 million euros. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance estimates the overdue obligations of state suppliers at 1.5 billion euros.

The main “culprit” of the growth of debts – hospitals.

The arrears of social security organizations are also showing growth, reaching 703 million euros in March from 505 million euros in December 2022. progress has been made in the payment of pensions. The increase is attributable to the lump sum obligation accompanying pensions, which is due to be met in the near future. Unpaid pensions have decreased by 79% compared to February 2021 and now stand at 98 million euros, the government notes.

V reform program, in addition, which filed at the same time as the Stability Program, indicated that the deviation from the goal of reducing arrears by 90% is due to hospitals and social security organizations that manage lump sum payments. In the government, hopes for a solution to the problem with hospitals are placed on the creation of EKAPY, which will centrally manage the supply of hospitals.

The European Commission, however, decided to act and “send a reasoned opinion to Greece as there has been no improvement in regards to excessive delays in payments in public and military hospitals,” as it announced last month when it announced its infringement procedures. He also sent a letter of warning that “concerned a national rule providing for the immediate payment of long-term debts of public hospitals to their private providers, provided that said providers waive their rights to interest, damages and remedies.” This is because “this practice constitutes a violation of EU rules on late payments in commercial transactions as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union.” In the same context, he also sent a second warning letter about “delayed payments to lawyers under the national government legal aid program aimed at providing legal assistance to citizens in financial difficulty.”

The European institutions and, in particular, the European Stability Mechanism paid great attention to the reduction of arrears during the years of the memorandum and during the period of increased supervision, since they believed that in this way the state deprives the market of liquidity and thus hinders development.