In his regular Sunday review, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis set out Greece’s proposals discussed at the EU summit, focusing on the energy crisis, countering hybrid threats and protecting minors on social media.
The prime minister also referred to subsidies for heating and fuel, the age limit of 15 for social media, and initiatives in healthcare, transport and social policy.
His post follows in full:
“Most of your comments on the previous review favoured the new format. So we’ll keep it, and, as you’ll see, I’ve incorporated some of the ideas you suggested.
I’ll start with the EU summit, which concluded on Friday and had a distinctly Greek focus, as three major Greek initiatives were discussed at length and received the green light from European leaders for further development.
I’m referring to our proposal for an emergency adjustment to European fiscal rules in response to the energy crisis, so that countries with surpluses, such as Greece, can provide targeted support to households and businesses for as long as the crisis lasts.
The summit asked the European Commission to come forward with proposals on this issue as soon as possible. I’m also referring to a European mechanism to counter hybrid threats linked to migration, such as the one we experienced at Evros in 2020 and recently in Spain’s Ceuta, and, of course, to the introduction of a stricter age-limit framework for children accessing social media.
These are all Greek proposals becoming European policies. Europe must move faster on all three fronts, and we are here to keep pressing in that direction. Greece now has a strong voice in Europe and is using it in the interests of Greeks and, of course, European citizens.
As for our own response, this week we introduced new measures to limit the impact of the energy crisis on households and businesses. First of all, on heating. We are subsidising heating oil by 40 cents per litre, with the cost shared between the state and refineries, and increasing the heating allowance by 30%, regardless of the heating method used.
As a result, heating oil will cost €1.55 instead of €1.95, while for those who also receive the allowance, the cost falls to about €1.35 per litre. In total, the support covers almost 1.2 million households.
We are also intervening on motor fuels, cutting the pump price by 20 cents for diesel and 10 cents for unleaded petrol until 31 October, with no applications and no income criteria. The reduction is passed directly on to the price paid by drivers. I know the pressures remain severe, and no single measure is enough to eliminate them. That is why we will monitor international developments and adjust our interventions, while keeping resources in reserve for the difficult months ahead.
We are also adding support for fishers to these measures. In addition to what we announced last week, we are increasing the subsidy for marine fuel from 16 to 40 cents per litre for September and October, and making €15 million available to compensate coastal fishers for damage to their nets caused by protected marine species, providing a solution to a problem that has concerned them for years.
Aside from energy, this week:
Text messages have begun going out inviting people to free preventive breast cancer screening, as part of the “Prevent” programme, which is now a permanent national health policy. I believe one of the most important changes we have made to the National Health System is to make prevention part of people’s everyday lives and begin building a new health culture. Once again, if you receive a message, please don’t ignore it!
We opened the new Chronic Diseases Treatment Centre in Kilkis, a project that had remained unfinished for years. It is a modern, entirely public facility with 50 beds, already caring for 38 of our fellow citizens. The contribution of the Union of Greek Shipowners and the Region of Central Macedonia was decisive, and we thank them very much.
We are making more places available in nurseries and childcare centres through two changes introduced by the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family Affairs. First, children will move from a nursery to a childcare centre at the age of 2 instead of 2.5, freeing up places mainly for infants, with no compromise on safety. Second, in Attica and Thessaloniki, centres will be able to take up to 15% more children, instead of the 10% allowed until now.
The distribution of school meals has also begun. This year, they will reach around 2,000 primary schools in 160 municipalities, with up to 250,000 meals a day, 18,000 more than last year. Coverage has almost doubled since 2019 and now reaches nearly one in two children. I should stress that OPEKA and EFET systematically inspect the preparation and transport of the meals to ensure their quality and safety.
Our important initiative to protect children from the risks of social media is also in its final stages. The bill establishing a minimum age of 15 for access to social media (from 1 January 2027, for children born in 2013 or later) is now being debated in Parliament, with a vote scheduled for next Thursday. We cannot expect parents alone to protect their children when they are up against platforms with algorithms designed to keep them in front of a screen all the time. Under the new framework, responsibility for age verification will lie with the platforms themselves, with the help of Kids Wallet and with personal data protected.
The first of the 14 fully refurbished trains for the Electric Railway (Metro Line 1) is now in service, and this week I had the chance to ride it and see the difference at first hand. A further 10 trains will be refurbished, while on Lines 2 and 3 we are upgrading 12 trains, adding air conditioning, and moving ahead with the purchase of 19 new trains, 7 of them for the airport.
In Nea Karya in Thessaly, we inaugurated Greece’s largest standalone battery energy storage facility, one of the largest in Europe, a project by Metlen and the Karatzis Group. Put simply, it stores surplus energy from the sun and wind so that it can be fed into the system whenever it is needed.
We signed an agreement with LAMDA Development to create the “Home of Gymnastics” at Elliniko. Hangar B at the former airport will be given a new lease of life, becoming one of Europe’s most modern training centres and being granted to the Hellenic Gymnastics Federation for 30 years, so that our national teams and thousands of athletes can train there. It is the least we owe them.
In culture, too, 22 antiquities returned from Israel, having been illegally removed from our country. This is the first time repatriation has taken place from that country, and it is certainly an important step in our cooperation to protect cultural heritage and combat the illegal trafficking of antiquities, as part of a repatriation marathon that we will, of course, continue.
I’ve saved for last an important development in healthcare concerning organ transplants. Since the start of the year, 251 transplants have been carried out thanks to 114 organ donors. It is significant that transplantation in Greece is progressing and that more patients can find the treatment they need. But I want to focus in particular on the donors’ families.
People who, while experiencing such a difficult loss, made a decision that saved other lives. We owe them a very big thank you. As we do the doctors, nurses and everyone who works to make these transplants possible. There is another important development: at Onassis Hospital, kidney transplants from living donors are now being carried out even in very low-weight children. Eight children have already received treatment here in Greece, without having to go far from their families.
That’s all for this week. I look forward to your comments and suggestions again. Happy Sunday!”