Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis refers, among other things, to the measures to improve citizens’ daily lives, the agreement on the F-35 and the government’s anti-accuracy initiatives in the weekly account of the government’s work on Facebook.

“We are proceeding to take measures with the aim of improving the daily life of many” says Mr. Mitsotakis characteristically in his message.

The prime minister also congratulates him Theodoros Roussopouloswho occupies the position of the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, but also George Lanthimos for the 11 Oscar nominations with the film “Poor Things”.

The Prime Minister’s message:

“Good morning and happy Sunday!

I will start today’s review by pointing out that I also made the recent cabinet. As happens in the everyday life of citizens, government activity is not monothematic and rightly so. Because each issue has its own special weight, its own scope among the many others that concern citizens. So together with our flagship initiatives, we implement actions and proceed to take measures with the aim of improving the daily life of many. And in the past week we have several such examples. From digitization to strengthening the family, from anti-accuracy measures to strengthening national defense.

With this reinforcement I will start the review of the week, as yesterday it became known that Greece officially entered the acquisition track up to 40 F-35 aircraft. But also something else: that we become the recipient of one large equipment package, which will be made available to Greece completely free of charge from American stocks. This is a package that will come to strengthen all 3 branches of the Armed Forces and our Coast Guard. I will not repeat all the details of the package, as I explained them – hopefully in sufficient detail – yesterday in my statement. But it is worth saying again that the letter of the US Secretary of State announcing the above also seals the strategic depth of Greek-American relations.

Greece’s active diplomacy, stability and reliability are vindicated in the best possible way, while our motherland shields its defense even more.

And, as I said at the beginning, the scope of the week’s actions is large. So, from National Defense and diplomacy, we move on family support and the announcement of the permanent increase in the birth allowance from 2,000 euros to 2,400 to 3,500 euros depending on the number of children each family has.

The measure concerns approximately 75,000 new births per year – we would like and hope it will be more – thus strengthening an equal number of families across the country. And I attach particular importance to the fact that this measure will have retroactive effect from January 1, 2023. In other words, it will also include families who had a child last year and we know very well that they are already burdened by the increased cost of baby items. The payment of the increased allowance will start in April and 90 million euros will be allocated in two installments to 300,000 new parents.

This measure solves his pressing problem demographic; Obviously not, but it is an additional support, added together with the increase of the tax-free allowance by 1,000 euros for families with children, the readjustment of the child allowance in the public sector, the extension of the maternity allowance from 4 to 9 months for freelancers and farmers, the emergency financial aid, the reduction of VAT on baby items and the establishment of a profit ceiling for baby milk.

I hope you have seen it, but let me say it again: the good course of our economy – he confirms it in his recent report on Greece and the IMF – allows us to combine dykes against precision with our overall family policy. A policy that needs a multi-faceted and multi-level strategy, which will soon be included in a Unified Demographic Plan.

As for our ongoing battle with accuracy, a hefty fine of €561,000 was recently imposed for unfair profiteering on yet another of the best-known companies specializing in, among other things, baby formula. And because many ask “but are these fines collected?” I answer directly yes, and I quote the data: in 2023, 25,267 checks were carried out, 1,865 violations were recorded and fines of 12,806,600 euros were imposed.

So far, the state has collected almost half the amount, i.e. 5,908,750 euros.

We will not stop the market sweeps. After all, it is one of our “weapons” against unjustified price increases. By the way, I would like to remind you that 1,300 products have been locked in the Permanent Price Reduction, about 70 products participate in the Household Basket (depending on the super market) and in March the additional reductions in the prices of products in the categories of detergents, household cleaners, personal hygiene, baby diapers and baby milk. As long as there is a problem, we will take action.

Next topic: the new favorable arrangements for the out-of-court debt settlement mechanism which came into force on Friday and provide for up to 28% additional “haircut” of debts and 3% fixed interest rate for 3 years for all debt arrangements to Banks and debt management companies.

I remind you that the 3% interest rate for the entire duration of the regulation had already been instituted for the State. In addition, the possibility of joining the extrajudicial mechanism is given to persons who “inherited” debts to the State and Social Security Agencies, from businesses that have closed. 12,025 successful debt settlements were carried out through the extrajudicial system until December 2023, totaling 4.36 billion euros with an average repayment period of 17 years for debts to the State and 18 years to banks – financial institutions.

Let me now come to another government action that reflects the motto “we said it, we did it”: a few days ago the successful completion of the first digital transfer of property. It took just 14 minutes to register the file on akinita.gov.gr, which has been operational since January 1st, and one working day to issue the registration certificate! This process has until now taken up to 10 months to complete, resulting in each buyer paying the price without taking ownership of their property. Electronic transfers will gradually become the norm, saving citizens from long hours of waiting at the Mortgage Offices and unnecessary paperwork.

All that will be required from now on will be the physical presence of the parties at the notary’s office, in order to establish the legal capacity of the parties. As you understand, the work of digitizing all 390 mortgage registrars in the country is colossal, but the beginning has been made with the branches of Nea Smyrni, Salamina and Byron, while by the end of June it is expected that the records of all mortgage registrars in Attica and Thessaloniki.

Even more critical is reform for the radical reform of the judicial map with the consolidation of the Magistrate’s Courts and the Courts of First Instance approved by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. Its goal is simple: the speedy delivery of justice, since this is a large section that will contribute decisively to the faster issuance of judicial decisions. And this is important because, while we are not behind in the number of judges compared to the rest of Europe, here the adjudication of cases requires four and five times as much time. Sometimes it takes four, five, seven, eight, even ten years for a case to come to an end in court – and this is practically equivalent to denial of justice. These changes therefore have secured resources from the Recovery Fund and will be implemented with the technical assistance of the World Bank.

To come to an extremely important development for Crete and for me personally, as I had committed to my fellow citizens that this project would be done. I am referring to BOAK, the road axis from Chania to Heraklion, 157 km long and with a budget of approximately 2 billion, which is entering the final stretch for its implementation. After decades of delays and waiting, he was awarded the contract. In 2019, we received a plan for a road with no coherence, no funding plan and no concrete single alignment. Since 2020, with hard work, with persistence and methodicality from the leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure, we have arrived here today. It deserves a big thumbs up to the Ministry Services and the consultants who contributed to the maturation of the project which will change the daily life of residents and visitors in Crete, the tourist flagship of our country.
And I’ll take this opportunity to point out that 2023 was a great year for the Greek airports. This week it was announced that an all-time record in passenger traffic was recorded -72.6 million passengers compared to the previous record high of 64.16 million in 2019. The country’s attractiveness and improved services brought this result . We are working to do even better this summer, with additional support for island tourism seaplanes now entering the field of sea transport. The first test flight took place a few days ago and in the coming months routes will start in Western Greece, specifically on the line Patras – Corfu – Paxos.

In closing, I would like to refer to two important Greek successes in different fields which, however, make us equally happy and proud. To congratulate him Theodoros Roussopoulos, the first politician from our country to occupy the position of President of the Parliamentary Assembly, in the oldest and most important European Organization for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law. His unanimous election is a great honor for New Democracy and Greece.

The second important Greek success is his George Lanthimos who won 11 nominations for his new film Poor Things at this year’s Oscars, a record number for a Greek director. The cinema of Giorgos Lanthimos when it first appeared was characterized by the international press as “weird Greek wave”, now the former member of Dimitris Papaioannou’s golden creative team at the Olympic Games ceremonies, I can say that it has become mainstream. He is joined by the 5-Oscar nominee and Greek-born director Alexander Payne. Congratulations to both of them. They are already winners for us, and they make us very proud.

I hope you found today’s review interesting, it was full of good news! So thank you for your attention, and I hope you have a beautiful Sunday!