Nikos Androulakis targets Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the occasion of the activation of the Island Decarbonization Fund, at an event held yesterday, Thursday in Naxos.

As the president of PASOK-KINAL states in his post, the government presents the issue as its own achievement, while in reality it is the result of the legislative initiative he undertook as a member of the European Parliament and a member of the Environment Committee in 2017.

Nikos Androulakis’s post in detail

“Yesterday K. Mitsotakis from Naxos together with the leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Energy announced the activation of the Island Decarbonization Fund.

As Ministry circles stated, “Greece secured a unique opportunity through the European ETS regulation, obtaining the possibility of allocating 25 million pollutant allowances exclusively for the decarbonization of the Greek islands. These rights will be auctioned and the proceeds will be directly allocated to projects that will contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of our islands.”
But the government concealed that these 25 million rights, which correspond to about 1.5 billion euros of European money and appears as its own achievement, it is the result of the legislative initiative that I undertook as an MEP and member of the Environment Committee in 2017.

Specifically:

In 2015 the European Commission presented its proposal for the Emissions Trading System for the period 2021 – 2030 envisaging the creation of a new Modernization Fund, which would finance investments in the energy sector for countries that in 2013 had a GDP per capita lower than 60 % of the European average. Greece in 2013 was just above 60% of the average, while in 2014 and 2015 it was at 59%. In other words, the European Commission’s proposal exempted our country from funding, even though it met the conditions.

In order to correct this injustice, I tabled an amendment co-signed by other Greek MEPs and which was adopted by the Plenary of the European Parliament. We have changed the base year, adding 2014 and 2015, so that in this way our country can benefit from European funding of billions of euros for projects such as the interconnection of mainland Greece with the Aegean islands and Crete, the modernization of the network, the expansion of renewable energy sources and the development of environmentally friendly technologies. Unfortunately, however, there was no similar development in the Council of Ministers at that time, in which the then SYRIZA – ANEL government participated.

New pressures from the European Parliament were needed and in the end it was decided to create a special financial mechanism for our country amounting to 25 million rights, at the same time limiting the eligible projects only to the Greek islands and their connection with mainland Greece. It is noted that the 25 million rights are about half of what we would be entitled to, if we had participated normally in the Modernization Fund, as requested by the European Parliament.

Therefore, the mechanism and its endowment with 25 million rights, corresponding to approximately 1.5 billion euros, not only is it not an achievement of New Democracy, which was in the opposition when it was voted in 2018, but of the organized effort made in the European Parliament.
In addition, the question arises: why while this mechanism was available to our country as early as 2021, the government delayed three years to modernize the network in our islands and advance the interconnectivity projects?