Brussels, 12/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - Meeting Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Thursday 12 December, European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn underlined the considerable efforts made by the country to take best advantage of the money provided through cohesion policy. The country appears to wish to continue in the same direction for using the €14 billion made available to it for the next seven years and help it out of crisis.
On 11-12 December, the commissioner visited Athens where he met the prime minister and other members of his government. He underlined that Greece had successfully managed to use the European structural funds available until the end of the year, before the end of the 2007-2013 period. The absorption rate of the funds available is higher than the European average.
Greece does not appear to be reducing its efforts at the beginning of the next programming period, during which the country could benefit from €14 billion in structural funding. The commissioner said that the country had already submitted its draft partnership agreement with the European Commission this week, explaining how this funding would be allocated. He said that he was satisfied that particular emphasis had been placed on the real economy, which would “create jobs and give hope for the future”.
Hahn also travelled to Crete as part of the trip in which he intends to visit 13 Greek regions, in an effort to provide support to the initiatives carried out with the help of structural funding. He still has six more regions to visit. The visit to Crete provided an opportunity to meet with the local authorities and visit the Research and Technology Foundation set up there with European funding. (MD/transl.fl)