Madam Ambassador, Secretaries, Ministers, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to Athens. It is indeed a great pleasure to address this amazing gathering. Frankly, I cannot think of a better time and I cannot think of a better place to hold this summit.
P-TEC is a great opportunity to further strengthen the Transatlantic Alliance in the field of energy.
The United States is a major energy exporter, Europe is a major importer. So the scope for this cooperation is extensive and the deals that have been signed and will be signed over these two days indicate that there is significant substance behind this partnership that we are currently building.
But I should point out that this is not just a partnership based on commercial transactions. I think it is also an enduring bond based on a similar set of strategic objectives.
We both, Greece and the United States, have a primary responsibility as governments to deliver affordable energy to our citizens and our businesses.
We both want to secure energy sources and critical raw materials that are free from geopolitical baggage.
We want vibrant industries, we want fair competition.
We want to unleash innovation, we want to develop new technologies.
And, of course, we do want to reduce emissions, each in our own ways.
Over the past six years, my country has charted its own course when it comes to energy.
At the beginning of my first term, in 2019, we made a strategic decision -sorry about that Doug- to shift away from lignite, which used to provide 60 percent of our electricity. This was not just driven by environmental concerns, it was driven by economics – in our case, lignite was simply too expensive for us.
Instead, we did invest in renewables, taking advantage of our superior solar and wind resources. As anyone who has been on a Greek island in the Aegean knows, the Greek wind is a powerful force that we are harnessing for good purposes.
As a result of these investments, renewables now meet more than 50% of our electricity needs. And for the first time -and I really want to highlight this point-, in 2024 Greece became a net electricity exporter.
Think of how important this is. Just in 2023 we spent 575 million € importing electricity. Last year, we earned 122 million € by exporting it. In other words, in just one year, we witnessed a shift of 700 million €, generating electricity from our own resources to lower costs and improve our trade balance.
Meanwhile, we also invested heavily in natural gas, to ensure that we have and will have for the foreseeable future predictable baseload power. We have already commissioned two ultra-modern gas plants. One more is under construction, several more are being planned.
These days, these gas plants provide the flexibility needed not just for Greece but for the entire region of Southeast Europe.
Of course, we are also investing in our grids. When we came into office, in 2019, Greece was roughly investing 400 million € in our electricity grids. Last year, this number reached 1.5 billion €. This has improved resilience and has also promoted better energy usage through digitalization.
We are midway through a generational 6 billion € project to connect all our islands to the mainland grid. This makes so much sense to us, economically, environmentally, and in terms of reliability. Our largest island Crete, my home island, has just been interconnected to the grid. This is saving us a lot of money.
As we are developing our grids, we are also strengthening storage, with batteries, with pumped hydro, in order to develop the maximum flexibility possible.
And, of course, we also want to be on the front line of exploring new technologies, especially carbon capture and storage and hydrogen. And, of course, given the fact that we are a stable provider of low-cost energy, we are also attracting significant interest in investments in data centers, enabled again by a strong and predictable energy offering. So this is a multi-layered transformation that explores all opportunities.
Since coming into office, and especially since 2022, we have supercharged our exploration program for hydrocarbons. And we were incredibly pleased -and I would like to personally congratulate our Minister for Energy and the Environment Mr Stavros Papastavrou for the great work he has put in reaching this agreement-, we’re very happy that we have signed the agreement between ExxonMobil, HELLENiQ ENERGY and Energean. Why is this important? We are on track to have the first exploration well drilled in Greece in 40 years. We are doing the sensible thing, we’re exploring our own areas, because we know that Europe will need natural gas for many, many years to come.
After all, we have made a strategic bet on natural gas. Step by step, we have built a web of assets to strengthen not just Greek but regional gas security. Just think of what has happened over the past years. It was very nicely portrayed on this beautiful digital map we saw a few minutes ago. We have inaugurated the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the Interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria, which provided Bulgaria with critical gas supply during a very difficult time for the country. The FSRU in Alexandroupolis. Just a few days ago, we commenced operations on a major compression station in Komotini to boost our export capacity. So we have become a provider of energy security for the entire southeastern European region. And, as a result of all these investments, which we are now in the process of amortizing, we have become a major transit country for natural gas.
If you look at the numbers, five-six years ago, in 2020, we were merely a destination for gas. We were just a footnote in the energy corner of Europe. At the time we were simply importing 6 bcm of gas, we were exporting almost nothing. Gas was coming in to cover our own primarily electricity generation needs. If you look at 2024, we witnessed a completely different picture. Inflows exceeded 17 bcm, outflows reached nearly 11 bcm. In other words, most of the gas that comes into Greece does not stay in Greece, it is sent to third countries.
And we will continue to invest in our gas infrastructure to play this important regional role, hence the tremendous importance of the Vertical Gas Corridor, and we’re very happy that new deals will be announced. It makes just so much sense for the United States to look at Greece as an entry point for American gas to serve the energy needs of an entire region. And I am very happy that we are making this vision a concrete reality.
As you know, we’ve made a historic decision to phase out Russian gas. Our region, Southeastern Europe, is the last corner of Europe that still imports Russian pipeline gas, but this is not going to continue.
So this ban on Russian gas essentially presents a major opportunity to redraw the complete energy map of Southeastern Europe. But let me be clear, and I’m here addressing both Secretaries: this ban must be enforced. This is also a message to my European counterparts. We cannot have Russian gas getting into Europe through the back door via Türkiye. Otherwise, all these initiatives essentially will be in vain.
We stand absolutely ready to assist in this effort through the Vertical Corridor, with American LNG coming into Greece and then north towards Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Let me repeat it: Greece is the natural entry point for US LNG to replace Russian gas in the region.
These are the elements of our energy policy: we are focused on developing our own resources, on building our own infrastructure, and, of course, on helping our neighbors and playing a leadership role in the Balkans and Southeastern Europe.
Let me conclude with some very brief thoughts on Europe’s energy strategy, which is a topic that we recently discussed at the European Council and was also discussed at the level of the ministerial gathering a few days ago.
My approach, when it comes to the energy transition, is very, very clear: we need an energy transition that is cost-effective. Today, the number one issue facing our citizens is inflation. We cannot keep asking our citizens to pay an ever-increasing cost for energy. It is important to focus on those resources and those technologies that are cost-competitive, moving at the right time to sectors that are harder to decarbonize for example, such as shipping.
In this regard, we very much welcome the course correction which we witnessed at the European level, pushing back ETS2 by a year, as well as adding the obviously required greater flexibility to meet our 2040 targets. These are all very welcome developments.
As we push forward we must be ruthlessly technologically neutral. We cannot pick winners. Ιt’s up to the markets to lead this innovation push forward. We can make strategic bets on technologies where Europe still has a significant competitive advantage and we should certainly do that.
But, within Europe, we must also strive to complete the internal energy market. The price disparities that, unfortunately, we still see across Europe are unjust but they are also economically wasteful. But, most importantly, they are politically unsustainable. So we need to do better to create a true single European market that will benefit all European citizens.
And finally, we must put our energy policy within a broader strategic framework, ensuring not just energy security but employment, social cohesion, security of supply, industrial vibrancy, and strategic autonomy.
Now more than ever, energy is essentially intertwined with geopolitics and geoeconomics. And this is why this meeting has been so important, because it translates what is essentially a strategic vision into a business reality.
Let me conclude by saying that this meeting is also important in another respect: it symbolizes the enduring bonds between Greece and the United States. When I look at what has transpired over these past few days, when I see the high-level delegation, Madam Ambassador, the biggest number of American officials ever present in Greece, this is a very impressive start to your presence here in Greece, so all this is evidence that our relationship is getting so much stronger and deeper every year. So we have so much that we can accomplish together and I am sure that when we set ambitious targets we can all work towards achieving them.
Let me welcome you again to Athens and wish you all the best in your deliberations. Thank you very much.
