Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with the heads of public institutions and the National Bank working on the “21 Initiative” at the Maximos Palace.

During the meeting, the prime minister was briefed on the actions and social work of the “21 Initiative”, which concerns, among other things, health, education, culture, support of young people and the treatment of climate crisis.

At the start of the meeting, the prime minister said: “I would like to thank you again, each and each one individually, but also for this initiative. Each participating institution has its own separate and distinct route and contribution to the common good of our country.

But, of course, it is extremely important that you were able to unite under an initiative and highlight and launch a series of initiatives that had their own separate footprint.

We, from the first time the Greek people have trusted us in 2019, have placed great emphasis on what we call the cooperation of the wider State, the state with civil society and with public institutions that have individual goals equivalent to ours. And we have worked with many of you on individual actions of great importance to us.

And I think in this way we give a new example of how this cooperation can be better instituted, but also have tangible, real effects on the effectiveness of public policies, once we share the same goals.

I want to congratulate you on this very interesting initiative on Alzheimer’s, which is a public health problem that we already find and only worse, unless science does and does its miracle, which may be more likely than it seemed to. But, of course, until we get to this point, we will need more support, more know -how. And the idea of organizing such a center of excellence, myself personally, and I imagine the ministry, is something we find extremely interesting and we would like to support it in every way.

But I would like to take the opportunity as we all have you all around the same table, to think a little collectively who are those other areas where we might be able to launch initiatives that come and go on already tested actions that we have already taken, but we are already in charge of Identify with them beyond public health actions.

I believe it is best to focus on one or two big projects than to “run” many little ones that can ultimately be lost and not give the imprint of the way in which the country’s big institutions come and add to a joint effort. The center you mentioned is something that looks great, emblematic and I would really like to identify with it.

A second initiative, already funded by the private sector -and I am referring to the Hellenic Bank Association, in this case -concerns the “Marietta Giannakou” program for the modernization of our schools. This is a very impressive program. And it’s a program that is already being tested in practice and works. What does it mean? I went to Karpenissi yesterday, I saw the 2nd Primary School of Karpenisi, the contractor is in, we build the stadiums, we make the toilets, we give accessibility to the disabled, we re -establish the building.

We have an old building potential and it is a program that we will support from the Public Investment Program, but we also want private resources and the speed at which these private sector contracts can be implemented, because these projects must be done in the summer. That is, these projects start in June and in September to be over, we cannot have contracts open while the school operates.

I would like to add schools every year. And this is a very specific program. And I want to put this idea to you, how you could possibly support this action as a whole, because the result is measurable, each institution could adopt specific schools. We do 430 in the first phase.

As time goes on, so can we get into more “heavy” repairs, so the number of schools can shrink and the intervention we make. But it is something that is happening all over Greece and I assure you that it has a very big impact. And it is an iconic project in which we must unite our actions and our strengths.

There may be other initiatives. But I would prefer to focus on some of the big ones to make a lot of little ones.

Both examples, that is, what you mentioned, an emblematic action in the health sector, and possibly something important in the field of education, for which I am sure we all have a sensitivity, maybe it could be interesting to you through the “mantle” of its own cooperation.

The meeting was also attended by the Government by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government Kostis Hatzidakis, the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, the Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavirou Vartzopoulos.