The banking system and the economy, in general, but also the restrictions on the digital access of minors were the topics raised in the radio interview of the Minister of State Akis Skertsou, on the radio station “Sky 100.3”.

Starting with the latter, the minister assessed the initiation of this discussion as important in itself, and, as he said characteristically, “we are ringing a bell that should sensitize everyone, the state, the scientific community, the educational community, parents and children”.

He clarified, however, that “under no circumstances should we demonize technology. The digital age offers opportunities, possibilities, opens new avenues for learning, communication, creativity, greatly facilitates our daily life”.

“At the same time, there are some risks, some challenges that, especially for children, create some conditions of digital vulnerability and asymmetry, and I insist on these two terms. Digital vulnerability and asymmetry means that I have a regulatory framework, at European and national level, that does not oblige technology and social network providers to implement an environment that will protect the most vulnerable ages. When there are mechanisms and tools that cause addiction, there should also be filters that protect children from that addiction,” he observed. Citing, in fact, findings from scientific research, he said that “problems may arise, such as depression, distraction from school studies, low self-esteem, issues that we see more and more often at young ages.”

According to the Minister of State, “the awakening will lead to the second measure: There are parental controls inside mobile phones, which neither the parents nor the children know about. A practical second step is that an information campaign can be carried out for the activation of the so-called parental controls, the controls, that is, that can be used by the parents themselves.” With this tool, the child will be protected “both from prolonged use and from viewing content that may be problematic, offensive or dangerous for the child,” he added.

In this context, as he noted, “there will be a special event on December 30, in the presence of the prime minister and all the relevant ministers, who will present a platform called parentalcontrols.gov.gr, where all the instructions for how you can activate these settings on the child’s mobile phone. The point is to make these settings simpler and more universal. This will be the next step that will be activated in the first quarter of 2025 with the Kids Wallet app.”

The third and last step is “the cooperation and harmonization of practices and discussion with the providers. Legislation on so-called digital justice and digital services is incomplete at the European level, and we want Greece, together with some other countries, to take the lead in this public debate for a more coherent framework. We need to create a Charter of new digital rights of children”, emphasized Mr. Schertz. And from there, the corresponding policies will be determined in terms of the software that will be provided, according to him. Closing the issue, he talked about the rules that parents should put in place, as well as the government’s initiative for mobile phones in the bag.

For the banks

On the next topic of the interview, the banks, the Minister of State began his presentation with a general observation: “The functioning of competition is a key issue in general for the Greek economy”. And, after recalling the “collapse of the banking system in the previous decade,” he first acknowledged that “more competition is needed in the banking system.” However, as he added, in the last 5.5 years actions have been taken to stimulate competition. At this point he cited other indicators, such as that “non-performing loans have decreased from 44% to 6.8%” or that from the negative credit expansion of 11 billion of the previous decade, “we now have a positive credit expansion of 24 billion”.

“Now we can take further measures”, he pointed out, arguing that the relevant discussion has been open for 5.5 years, thus denying that the government was “dragged” by PASOK in taking the specific measures. He then launched an attack on the government’s political opponents: “Do we want an opposition that functions as a party of power or as a party of protest? As a party of seriousness or as a party of seriousness? The proposals that were heard do not step on the European regulatory environment surrounding the operation of banks, they show ignorance”. “Saying that you will come to impose the level of interest rates in an administrative regulatory legislative manner shows that you are further behind than Andreas Papandreou’s PASOK, which in 1987 and 1994 abolished administrative interventions at the level of banks. Possibly it is a pleasant pro-people talk from the opposition, but completely out of place with the current European banking environment”, was the criticism of Mr. Scherchus to major in particular, opposition.

Citing, then, the Eurostat reports, he underlined that “investments from 11% as a share of GDP in 2019, have increased in 2024 to 16.5%, we have the largest increase in Europe. We started from an environment of absolute investment vacuum, while investments in the rest of Europe average at 20% of GDP. There is still some distance separating us from the European average, but here we are talking about progress and convergence in practice.” According to the 2025 budget, investments will reach 17.5%. “The investments, public and private, in 2019 were close to 20 billion. and it is more than 40 billion in 2024, the same in 2025. Let’s not zero…”, he said.

According to the Minister of State, “the opposition deliberately and cunningly takes a photo of the moment” and “as if it has landed as an alien in Greece”, he argues that our country is much lower than the rest of Europe. “As if a bankruptcy roadster hadn’t passed in the last decade,” he noted. When our economy grows twice as fast as the rest of the European economy, that is the definition of convergence,” he added.

“The month in many households does not come out, because there is accumulated inflation of the last three years which is largely due to external factors (the energy crisis, the war in Ukraine, disruptions in the supply chain due to the pandemic and also the internal dysfunction of competition) “, he emphasized to add: “Competition will improve with an investment and business environment, which will attract more foreign investment. The Greek economy has no competition because it was a closed economy and the opposition never says that.”

“To attract more investment and to have competition we need reasonable, stable taxation, without one-off taxes, as the opposition discovers from time to time. A digital environment without bureaucracy, with less hassle in investment permits, with reasonable labor costs. We have reduced social security contributions by 5.5 units, one additional unit in the voted budget. All these are factors that will make Greece more competitive and attractive for investments. While Europe remains stagnant in the last five years in investments – higher than us, however – Greece records a very significant increase in both public and private investments”, concluded Mr. Schertz.