By Penelope Galliou

In the midst of successive meetings at the Maximos Palace, in view of the TIF and with the basic plan of the announcements receiving the last corrections and details before receiving its final form, the Prime Minister will be in Thessaloniki today where he will have meetings with productive bodies of the city, representatives of chambers and Local Government, preparing the ground for his well-established landmark visit and speech at the Vellideo conference center on September 7.

Accompanied by a series of ministers, productive ministries and ministries that manage key everyday issues, (Minister of Infrastructure – Transport, Christos Staikouras, Health, Adonis Georgiadis, Environment – Energy, Theodoros Skylakakis, Development, Takis Theodorikakos, Culture, Lina Mendoni, Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Nikos Papathanasis, Deputy Minister under Prime Minister Thanasis Kontogeorgis) Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be at the Concert Hall where the National Strategy for Regional Development and the digital platform for regional development plans erga.gov.gr will be presented.

A platform which, according to government sources, is “a bold step in transparency and accountability”, as through it it will be possible to monitor ongoing projects – in all their stages and in real time, thereby increasing accountability to citizens and transparency, while the goal of double convergence will also be reflected – that is, the convergence of Greece with Europe and the Region with Attica.

In other words, it seeks to put an end to the backwardness of the Greek region compared to Athens, something that has already begun with the preparation of 12 regional development plans, while the digital platform erga.gov.gr is now a key tool.

With a “click” every citizen can have knowledge of the projects in his region and in his place, as it is essentially a stable mechanism for monitoring projects at local, regional and national level, with the aim of rational allocation of resources, reduction of regional inequalities and balanced regional economic and social development.

Through the public platform, every citizen now has direct access to critical projects – over one million euros – which are divided into different categories: rural road construction, airport, sports, regeneration, flood protection projects, employment, irrigation projects, security, improvement of everyday life , waste management, energy, entrepreneurship, research – innovation, maritime transport, transport, road works, education, environment, civil protection, culture, railway projects, strategic investments, tourism, health, water and digital connections.

Regarding the preparation of the Prime Minister’s presence at the TIF on September 7 and 8, it is expected that the same planning will be followed this year with the government echelons that will tour Thessaloniki, to prepare the ground for the arrival of the Prime Minister. The echelons are made up, in addition to government officials, of parliamentarians and of local party actors, with the aim of promoting government work.

On the substance of the announcements, however, government sources insist on talking about a “working” TIF, which takes into account the fiscal parameters and at the same time the issues that concern the citizens and must be resolved. In other words, it is not a “basket of benefits”, since as Kyriakos Mitsotakis underlines, he does not propose things that cannot be implemented and takes into account the country’s fiscal capabilities and ceilings on spending.

Consequently, they draft any announcements based on these margins.

Describing the speech of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the same sources refer to the continuation of the reforms with a clear social footprint and with a horizon of the next three years, until 2027, estimating that there are three “clean” years ahead, without polls, able to proceed with the implementation of the government’s program without distractions and postponements.

“At the end of this journey we will be judged by the citizens for the implementation or not of the commitments we undertook in 2023“, they emphasize.