“Greece has the largest support per capita from the NSRF and the Recovery Fund, in relation to any other country – a member of the European Union”, emphasized the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, at an event of the NSRF General Secretariat, entitled: “The Contribution of the NSRF and the Recovery Fund to Education, Health and the Environment“, in the context of the 88th TIF.

“This, thanks to the successful negotiation of the government and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis” completed Mr. Hatzidakis and added: “We are determined, not only to absorb the last euro, but to use Community funding for the benefit of development, for the benefit of accelerating the development process. This is certainly easy to say, it is a little more difficult to do. As we speak, hundreds of people throughout Greece are working in this direction. Close to what we’ve known for so many years and continue, where the NSRF programs have been added and the TA programmes, where the deadlines are tighter and things across Europe in terms of management are by definition more difficult.

But while our country has experienced the unprecedented crisis of the last decade, now without exaggeration it is our patriotic duty to run as fast as possible, because it is time to heal the wounds of the crisis and go even further».

Mr. Hatzidakis underlined that all those who manage such programs, “either at central or regional level“, whether integrated into the government machine, or in the regions and municipalities, “opinions are shared, which have no party color, but are opinions that underline the great added value and usefulness of the NSRF and the Recovery Fund” and pointed out: “And I would say that in addition to the traditional projects, which we know in Greece, which certainly have their utility, basically infrastructure projects, we must pay special attention to projects that strengthen the competitiveness of businesses, training projects which must catch place because the economy needs them, but also projects that are of particular priority in the European Union, such as the green and digital transition projects. So we must move towards a truly modern European direction without big words, without declarations, but with the aim of diagrams with specific timetables, which will have the corresponding result».

For his part, Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis emphasized: “Two out of three euros that enter the Greek economy come from co-financed actions” and continued: “This year we have the largest public investment program of the last fourteen years, amounting to 12.2 billion, where essentially the co-financed part reaches 8 billion.

That is, two of the euros that enter the Greek economy come from co-financed actions».

“We have no right to lose any resources, any euros. At the Recovery Fund, we are currently preparing, after the approval we got for the fourth payment request, disbursement of the one billion grant, we will have collected a total of 18.2 billion euros, i.e. 50.5% of the program. This keeps us in first place, per capita, in disbursements and certainly in first place for achieving milestones.he said.

The deputy minister noted that many of the 45 measures announced by the prime minister at the TIF are also co-financed by European funds.

“Today, Greece, in the second half of the year, is second from the peak of growth in Europe and first in the Eurozone. Practically, this somehow transforms into jobs, well-being, improving the everyday life of society, of citizens, into well-being that also covers gaps in health, education and the environment” said Mr. Papathanasis and added: “Our policy is reformist, reforms together with European resources are changing Greece. And we will continue, because that’s what we believe we have to do, because that creates new jobs, new jobs for the new kids, new jobs for the Greeks who went abroad to give them the opportunity to come back».

Mr. Papathanasis referred to the NSRF and TA funding, by sector, for health, education and the environment.

Specifically:

Actions and projects with a total budget of 2.3 billion euros are foreseen in the new programming period of the NSRF for education. For health, actions and projects of over 800 million euros. For the environment resources amounting to 3.6 million euros.

Especially, regarding the planned actions of the NSRF for the environment, Mr. Papathanasis underlined: “It is indeed the most important program of the NSRF and essentially promotes a green Europe, after all, a green Greece, as a goal that we have set in both the NSRF and the Greece 2-0, steps on four pillars, the green transition, the digital transition, training and of course competitiveness and the strengthening of businesses”.

Accordingly, the Recovery Fund finances 51 projects with a total budget of more than 2.3 billion euros.

In the field of education, 21 projects are financed, with a total budget of one billion euros. 387 million euros will be directed to higher education, 453 million euros to secondary education and 191 million euros to technical, educational vocational education for training. These concern technological equipment and educational tools, which are also foreseen in the program for the establishment of 5 new thematic and 10 experimental IEK, the upgrading of 25 vocational high schools, etc.

In the health sector, the actions, as mentioned by the deputy minister, concern projects such as primary health care equipment, the supply of equipment for primary health structures, other actions that promote digital transformation, such as a unified information system to support of service functions of NHS Health Units, expansion of the national telemedicine network, the digitization of the national health certification organization, etc.

From the co-financed actions, 156 Health Centers are upgraded, as well as 90 Hospitals. It also runs the very important public health prevention program “Spyros Doxiadis”, which includes the “Fofi Gennimata” program with free mammograms for all women over 45, the dentist pass, preventive tests for cervical cancer, obesity intestine and free diagnostic tests for heart diseases, etc.

The governor of Central Macedonia, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, said that “Cohesion makes Europe visible to its citizens” and emphasized: “It is necessary to talk again in Europe about Cohesion, because precisely in these three areas, in health, education and the environment, its importance and value emerges even more. After all, Cohesion is the European Union’s unique multi-annual bottom-up financing and investment tool. And I will tell you that it is more than just a financial tool. It is the medium that can make a difference in the lives of citizens».

The regional governor underlined the positive effect that European funds had on the regions, which were able to support health structures, provide equipment, upgrade school units, digitize their services and added: “In simple words, the Cohesion Policy of the European Union and the utilization of resources from the Regions of Europe means well-equipped hospitals, it means modern digital educational tools in schools and Universities, it means sustainable means of transport, it means energy diversification and renewable energy sources. It is a catalyst for the digital and green transition, for the fight against poverty, for the creation of new jobs, for social solidarity. All these are projects that we have already implemented and continue to implement in the Region of Central Macedonia. And here we must see the pivotal role of Europe’s 240 Regions and 90,000 municipalities».

The conclusions of the discussions were presented by the commander of the Special Coordination Service of the Recovery and Resilience Fund, Orestis Kavalakis, and the general secretary of the NSRF, Vasiliki Pantelopoulou.

“The national plan for TA, as approved by the European Commission, has approximately one billion for education, two billion for health and eight billion for environmental protection,” said Mr. Kavalakis and added: “These are three key points, the projects have already started and are being implemented also in education, we have the health centers which are being modernized, we have the hospitals which we are building, we have the medical equipment, which is in the tender procedures and of course we also have the digital tools in health, very important, because they change the citizen’s relationship with the health system and also help the health professionals a lot».

“We have chosen three main sectors, education, health and climate change, because we believe that these sectors are important, not only for the present and the future of the country, but also for the daily life of the citizens” underlined Ms. Pantelopoulou and he continued: “And that was a major reason they were chosen. Complementarity of resources. It is an existing fact and every day it is proven how beneficial it is for the citizens. Some programs are operated only by the NSRF and some other programs are operated by the TA, in addition, with excellent results for the everyday life of citizens. Our daily thinking is on how to improve the quality of life of citizens, students, teachers, people who work in health and how digital tools will help for this purpose. The new programming period of the NSRF 2021-27 is being implemented normally, I can say quite successfully, absorption is significant. Of course, we are in the middle of a programming period and we still have a long way to go, but everyone is working very hard, both the managing authorities and the beneficiaries. I believe that we have very good results, as we had in the previous management period».

The event was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Interior (Macedonia and Thrace) Kostas Giulekas.

The event was developed in three thematic sections:

In the 1st topic, entitled “Digital tools in Education”, the president of the Institute of Educational Policy, Spyros Doukakis, the president of EDYTE SA, Stefanos Kollias, and the regional director of Education of Central Macedonia, Alexandros Koptsis, participated.

The 2nd theme, entitled “Digital Tools in Health”, was attended by the general secretary of PDE & EPA, Katerina Oikonomou, the general secretary of Health Services, Lilian – Venetia Vildiridis, the managing director of KtP MAE, Stavros Asthenidis, the managing director of IDIKA, Niki Tsouma and the professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Ioannis Vlachavas.

In the 3rd topic, entitled “Facing Climate Change: Challenges and solutions for the Environment and sustainable development”, the general secretary of ERDF, TC and EKT Sectoral Program Management, George Zervos, the general secretary of Waste Management Coordination, Emmanuel Grafakos, and head of the Greece – Cyprus Unit of the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy at the European Commission, Carsten Rasmussen.