The weekly review of government initiatives and international developments was made by Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his customary Sunday post, referring to his presence in New York and San Francisco, to contacts with international investors and to discussions on the geopolitical situation and artificial intelligence.
The prime minister also refers to measures for addressing the cost of living, protecting housing, expanding the Digital Work Card, strengthening employment in the regions and tourist traffic, while making special reference to migration, the Cadastre and the repatriation of Greek antiquities.
In detail, the prime minister’s post follows.
“Good morning. This week I was in New York and San Francisco, in two very different parts of America, but with the same feeling: that we are living in a world more uncertain and more demanding than ever. With wars that continue, geopolitical balances that are changing, new pressures on energy and migration, but also technological developments, such as artificial intelligence, that are advancing very rapidly.
All this may seem distant. It is not. It affects the country’s security, the economy, the cost of energy, jobs, the opportunities of young people. That is why Greece must be present where these discussions are taking place. With clear positions, with alliances and with a plan.
This was also the main message of our presence at the UN.
At a time when rules and international agreements are being tested, Greece insists on International Law, multilateralism and dialogue. As a member of the Security Council, whose Presidency we assume in October, but also as a country located at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, we want to be a bridge and not part of the problem.
This means dialogue with everyone, but without concessions on our positions, which are firm. With Turkey, it is necessary to have open channels of communication and dialogue on the basis of International Law and good-neighborly relations. After all, geography has condemned us to live next to one another.
I repeated during my speech at the UN General Assembly that the only institutional framework for resolving our dispute is International Law. However, substantive dialogue cannot coexist with unilateral actions that violate international legality.
In New York I had a meeting with more than 30 institutional investors with exposure to Greece and to the largest Greek companies, whose total assets under management exceed $4.5 trillion. I repeated that the prudent fiscal policy that forms the basis for achieving surpluses and allows the rapid de-escalation of debt is our priority.
However, the most important immediate government priority in a period of great international uncertainty and turbulence is addressing the cost of living, mainly through limiting energy costs with an emphasis on heating oil, but also in the medium term by increasing disposable income, with further tax relief and higher average nominal wages.
But there is also another issue which, in my opinion, will determine our future much more than we have yet realized: artificial intelligence. In San Francisco we met people who are on the front line of this technological revolution. And here there is a very important lesson from history.
When nuclear energy appeared, humanity understood that it is not enough to know how a new technology works. We need rules, institutions, oversight and international cooperation to manage its enormous possibilities but also its risks.
The same question now arises for artificial intelligence, perhaps with even greater urgency. When even the creators of the most advanced models themselves admit that we do not fully understand how they function and improve themselves, the idea that self-regulation is sufficient is not convincing.
So we need regulation. Not to stop innovation, but to make it safe and useful for people. And we need a state that understands technology well enough neither to fear change nor to become hostage to those who develop it. This is also the great challenge for Greece: to make use of AI in the economy, in public administration, in health and in productivity, without allowing technology to evolve without limits and without accountability.
From New York to San Francisco, the conclusion was ultimately one: a country’s strength today is not measured only by its size. It is measured by its ability to build alliances, to defend its positions with rules and arguments, and to participate in time in the great changes of the era. This is exactly what we want Greece to be: a bridge-building country and not a troublemaking one. A country present, reliable and useful in managing the great challenges of tomorrow.
The fact that I was in America does not mean, however, that things did not happen here. So, opening the topics of the review, I begin with the payment of the double rent refund to teachers and healthcare workers serving in the regions, which started the day before yesterday, on Friday, and indeed retroactively from tax year 2024.
It is the first of the new support measures that I announced at the TIF to be implemented. A useful reminder also for the remaining beneficiaries of the rent refund: until Wednesday, September 30, you can correct any errors or omissions in the E1, so that you receive the refund of one rent payment.
In the same field, that of housing protection, the important change in the out-of-court mechanism that we had announced was activated from last Monday, so that the debtor can now request a separate arrangement for his primary residence, consenting to the liquidation of his remaining properties. I will give an example: a debtor owes a total of 300,000 euros and has a primary residence worth 150,000 euros.
At the same time, he also has other properties, with a total value of 50,000 euros. With the new option, he can request that his primary residence be protected separately and agree to the liquidation of the rest of his real estate. Therefore, in practice, the arrangement for his home will not be calculated on the total of 300,000 euros, but on the basis of the value of the primary residence, namely 150,000 euros, and of course his income capacity.
Thus, a lower monthly installment, greater debt write-off and an arrangement of up to 35 years may result. I believe that in this way we are giving a stable second chance to hundreds of thousands of borrowers to settle their debts sustainably, without the fear of losing their home. A solution that combines social sensitivity with the realistic settlement of debts.
We have spoken before about the expansion of the Digital Work Card. This week, however, the next practical step was taken: the clarifying circular was issued for its implementation in the new sectors I had told you about in June, after a pilot period and dialogue with representatives of employees and employers had preceded it.
Full implementation will take place in two phases: from October 12 for private healthcare, telecommunications, hair salons, beauty centers, dry cleaners and cleaning services, and from November 16 for consulting services, advertising, repairs, logistics, water and wastewater, and gambling. In total, approximately 500,000 additional workers are covered, bringing the total number to about 2.5 million.
I now come to three of our initiatives that are part of our broader effort to strengthen decentralization, offering incentives for relocation to the regions. The first initiative concerns work.
We are preparing a new subsidized employment program for businesses that will hire workers who live in mountainous and remote areas. The program provides for remote work, with a subsidy that will cover 90% of the salary and insurance contributions for 12 months.
In simple terms, a person will be able to work for a business located elsewhere, without having to leave their home area. And the business will have a strong incentive to keep them on its staff even after the subsidy ends. The second initiative concerns vocational education.
In Karpenisi, a new DYPA specialty in “Hotel Businesses” is being created, with 25 places for 2026-2027 and apprenticeship pay of up to 588 euros per month. It is an option that links training with a real need of the area: mountain tourism.
For young people to learn a profession that can keep them in their home area and support local businesses. And the third concerns areas with an intense demographic problem, where the Relocation Program, which started on a pilot basis in Evros and which we have spoken about before, is now being extended to seven municipalities of the Ioannina Regional Unit and to the Municipalities of Souli and Filiates in Thesprotia. It provides — I remind you — financial support of up to 10,000 euros for people and families who choose to settle there permanently.
At the same time, in October the application platform is expected to open for the eight Regional Units that have already been included in the planning: Kastoria, Kilkis, Serres, Florina, Pella, Drama, Kozani and Grevena.
It may be autumn now, but tourist traffic continues and everything shows that the year will close very positively. Already in the first seven months, from January to July, tourism revenues increased by 12% compared to last year, reaching 13.5 billion euros, while the number of foreign visitors also increased by 8.6%, despite the uncertainty caused by the situation in the Middle East.
What is sought, however, is not only for tourism to do well overall, but for the benefit to spread to more areas, especially those hit by major natural disasters. So, with this logic, on Thursday we opened the platform for the Thessaly-Evros Pass 2026. There will be 7,500 digital cards of 200 euros for selected destinations in Thessaly and 1,400 cards of 250 euros for selected destinations in Evros.
A more everyday, but by no means insignificant, change also concerns the Cadastre. Through metavoles.ktimatologio.gr, applications for correction of boundaries, area and other geometric data are now submitted electronically, for the cases covered by the platform. It was the last procedure of the Hellenic Cadastre that required physical presence.
It may sound like a technical issue, but on the contrary it is a very substantial facilitation for the citizen. It means that an owner no longer needs to take leave from work, travel and go to a Cadastre Office in order to correct a boundary or the area of their property on the cadastral map.
They can log in electronically, assign the required technical procedure to their engineer, submit the supporting documents, monitor the progress of their case and, where provided for, file an objection or appeal. The citizen does not go to the state; rather, the public sector becomes more accessible to the citizen regardless of their place of residence. After all, we have achieved this in so many other services.
On migration, the accommodation structure for asylum seekers at Thermopylae is now ceasing to operate, since no one remains at the facilities anymore and very soon the site will be returned to the local community. Let me also say that this year the flows of migrants and refugees are noticeably reduced — by about 34% — compared with 2025.
At the same time, in the first half of 2026, forced returns and deportations of illegal migrants to their countries of origin increased by up to 40% compared with last year, while the asylum recognition rate in the first eight months of 2026 amounted to 37% compared with 72% in 2024 and 58% in 2025. The “motto” of our government on migration is “strict, but fair policy.” That is why we are an example in Europe in the management of this issue.
I will close with a piece of news that takes us for a while out of the time of weekly current affairs and returns us to the deeper time of our history. Fifteen antiquities that had been illegally removed from Greece are returning from the United States of America. Some will once again be placed next to finds from the same excavation, at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
With this return, the antiquities that have been repatriated since 2022 by decisions of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office reach 179. Behind every such return there is persistent effort and, I will not tire of saying it, congratulations are due to the people of the Ministry of Culture and to all those who contributed. Every antiquity that is repatriated is an important victory, on the way to the greatest one.
In any case, since we are talking about our culture, today, in the context of the European Heritage Days, admission to the public archaeological sites, museums and monuments managed by the Ministry of Culture is free. So if there is a museum or a site that you keep saying you will visit, perhaps this Sunday is the right time.
Have a good Sunday, everyone!”