Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Commissioner, what a pleasure to see you. First of all, I’m very happy that Adonis looks in top form. This means that vaccines do indeed work. You may get Covid, but you don’t get very sick. So I guess that’s the best proof of what we have been arguing. But it’s a real pleasure to have you. Let me give you the floor first, because I guess we have important announcements and then I will have the opportunity to respond.
Elisa Ferreira: OK, thank you very much. So Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, dear Ministers and in particular, let me give a special thank you to the Minister of Development and Investments, Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, all the other Ministers and the Deputy Ministers present. It is, in fact, a pleasure to announce that the Commission has adopted this morning the Greek Partnership Agreement.
And it is the first Member State with an approved partnership agreement for the programming year of 2021-27. And it’s really a great pleasure for me. But this honors the work that has been done by the Greek government, by all the staff that worked very, very hard on all the negotiations. But I think we have reached a very important agreement with an investment that is in itself quite substantial.
We talk a lot in all the member states, a lot about recovery and resilience facility and programs, which in fact are very important, exceptional, new recovery instruments. But in fact, we only have the full effect when we get together these new kind of instruments with the so-called old but always needed ones. And so we are talking about 21 billion of the investment that is directly associated with the recovery of the ongoing convergence agenda, not only of Greece as a whole, but in particular the internal convergence inside Greece.
So territorial convergence is in itself reason why this funding is there. But the two instruments. And we believe that the Greek programme is absolutely adequate to create all the possible synergies between the RRP and these more traditional instruments. And by referring to this, I would like to underline, if you allow me, Prime Minister, just a couple of elements in this proposal that I think that deserve looking at and valuing. One of them is, in fact, that you are now investing a lot on research and innovation, not that you have not done it before, but there is a reinforced agenda that works very nicely, together with the effort also to anticipate your climate targets to the year 2028 with all the efforts that it takes, but also the new opportunities associated with it. Other elements that I would like to underline is in fact that we see in the plan that there is a lot of work also on governance models and to the national and regional level, both in waste treatment, in water treatment, in the organization of research and innovation schemes and in fact, also in the structure of the entities that manage the programs and the funds and this qualification of the management and the capacity of beneficiaries.
And I’m speaking also of the municipalities, of ERGOSE, and other institutions that have an especially important role. I think it’s very important that we look at the management capacity of all the entities and this joins very nicely with the reform agenda of the RRP, but also it has its own role inside the management of this massive funding. And, of course, it all works with a faster agenda for territorial cohesion. And this is, again, the essence why we are doing this, why we are managing these funds.
So in fact, if you have a more balanced country, you have more power in the economy and dynamism in the more dynamic areas. In this case of Attika, because you do not only have one pole but several development poles. So it was really very, very important the discussion that our services had and I personally had with the Minister Adonis Georgiadis.
And I think we achieved a very nice and interesting balanced framework on which, in fact, the leadership of Greece will be will be important not only for the Greeks, but for Europe, because the success of Greece and the convergence that it will trigger and the speeding up of the dynamism based on a new axis of competitiveness will be, in fact, relevant, and I would say even essential for Europe as such. And, I would like very much, Prime Minister, visit, to come to Greece very soon, because I want to see you are betting a lot on regions like Western Macedonia and the regions that really for me the work is going gone, the plans are being drafted.
And so it’s really very important that now the follow-up is as successful as it has been until now in our collaboration. So from my side, just a warm thank you and our eyes and our teams are really, I mean, very, very willing and interested in developing this framework in all the possible ways and in the best ways for the benefit of the countries of Europe and of the cohesion policy, because it has really a very important role to play in the future of Europe.
So thank you very much once again.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Well, Commissioner, thank you very much for your kind words and let me start by thanking you, your services, but also our team here in Greece. Minister Georgiadis, Deputy Minister Tsakiris, our Secretary General at the Ministry of Development, our team at the Prime Minister’s office for what I think is indeed a very, very significant achievement. This is a very important moment for Greece. And in headline number terms alone, this new partnership agreement for regional development represents in total, if we also include funds and national funds, 26.2 billion euros of financing over the next six years.
And if we add to that 18 billion euros of grants, 13 billion euros of loans through the Recovery and Resilience Fund, but also the new Common Agricultural Policy and the remaining EU financing packages, we have almost 77 billion. Let me repeat 77 billion euros available to reinforce the rapid recovery of the Greek economy. And I know we have worked very, very hard to get this done. While our RRF plan was amongst the first to be approved by the Commission.
We went one better with the Partnership Agreement. It was the first to be submitted. It is officially, as of today, the first to be approved, as you have just announced. And again, I would like to express my satisfaction regarding the level of cooperation, but also regard to the fact that we do share a common understanding of how the various financial instruments that we have at our disposal should work in conjunction towards achieving our main goals, one of which, of course, is regional convergence – so important in Greece, but also across Europe – but also the ability to implement the digital transformation, moving towards an economy with fewer and eventually no emissions, but also strengthening social cohesion and making sure that we make many good jobs available for young Greeks. As you know, we still have high levels of unemployment. And for us, job creation across Greece is of particular importance. The regions have been strengthened during the current programming period, and we have more funding, but more competence, which also places the burden of responsibility also on the regions to make sure that they deliver when it comes to implementing our core policies.
And I’m really looking forward to working with all involved parties to make sure that we mobilize these funds as quickly as possible. I think the Greek economy, Commissioner, is extremely well positioned to grow rapidly post-COVID. All the indications that we have are rather encouraging. Greece is becoming an investment destination. We are mobilizing foreign, but also local capital. And with the addition of European funds, we are creating a very promising environment to break out of a vicious cycle that essentially lasted for a decade and to make sure that the next decade is one of rapid but also quality-driven growth.
This is not just about GDP growth as a number. It’s also about the quality of the growth. It’s about social cohesion. It’s about the green transition. It’s about making sure that no region is left behind, especially those regions where we are implementing a very rapid move away from lignite. And I know your personal interest in Western Macedonia and we know that we have many different pockets of financial instruments directed towards that region. But also, I am happy to inform you, a lot of interest, a lot of investment interest for new types of investments that will create better jobs and possibly even more jobs in Western Macedonia but also in the region of the Megalopolis.
Let me just conclude by saying that I am also very happy that we have important innovations that have to do with the governance. You referred to this issue. We want faster and more efficient mobilization of resources, while always adhering to the highest levels of transparency and the simplification of the process for the evaluation and disbursement of grants – In my mind – is moving in that direction. So we want to take the lead not just in terms of absorbing the funds themselves, but also in terms of how we actually get the job done.
So let me again, thank you once more. We’re looking forward to welcoming you to Athens as soon as possible. To Greece I should say, because as you said, this is not just about Athens. This is not just about the region of Attica. The cohesion funds are an important instrument in making sure that no region is actually left behind. And I am glad that you highlighted and let me conclude with this remark; The importance of the traditional pillars of European policy when it comes to the cohesion policy, on one hand, and the Common Agricultural Policy, οn the other hand, these have always been the instruments which are most associated in the minds of our citizens with European policy and European solidarity. You know we fought a very hard battle at the Council to make sure that we preserve the funding and now we are moving one step further in the right direction, making sure that we actually make good use of the funds. So, again, thank you so much for your support and your assistance.
Adonis, do you want to add something?
Adonis Georgiadis: I just wanted to say, Mr Prime Minister, that I want to thank Elisa -on a very personal basis- because she and her team worked very hard to achieve this goal so that we could take today the official approval of our partnership as the first country of the European Union. And – I have to say that – this terrible year of COVID-19, our offices worked together very hard in order to make the use of European funding in such a way that helps our economy sustain ourselves as much as we could during these circumstances.
So I really want to welcome Elisa to Greece. And I think maybe she will come to the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF), Mr Prime Minister, and we will see her there because we have a big place where we will promote all the big things that we are doing through the ESPA funding. And we really want to show the Greek people how our participation in the European Union makes the life of the Greek people better. Because this is the main idea. To show everybody that being a member of the European Union is a good thing and it changes our life for the better. So I want to thank Ms Ferreira and her team because today we achieved the difficult goal that was important for us and it could not have happened without her personal assistance.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Thank you again.
Elisa Ferreira: Thank you very much to all the team. And now a new phase starts. And I just hope with all sincerity that it will be as constructive and as successful, as these initial phases. These were very difficult times. And we have been in permanent contact. And also from my side, I want to say in particular, in the person of Adonis, I thank all the team from your side. In fact, a very good relationship of cooperation and mutual understanding has been the ingredients that allowed for this success now.
But now, of course, delivery is the target. And as you correctly mentioned, Mr. Prime Minister, it is in fact, I mean a very historical occasion for Greece and all the countries that really need to speed up cohesion to do it and to do it in a better way. With all the ingredients and all the vision that together in Europe we have been capable of developing. Even if now Adonis is limited to his place.
As you mentioned, this shows all the work on vaccines has been in fact positive and efficient. Now we are coming, it seems, out of this deep, problematic period. I think Europe was there and they collaborated throughout it, with REACT-E, SURE and all the other instruments that help people, help the companies. But now it is building back in a speedy and more intelligent way.
And we count on Greece, with all this stamina and all this vision that we will have a lot of success stories to tell across Europe and to the world. Thank you very much once again.
