PRESS RELEASE: Fani Spanou Carsten Rasmussen working meeting in Brussels
The Regional Governor of Central Greece Fanis Spanos, the Regional Councilor of Boeotia Ioannis Pergantas and the Executive Secretary of the Central Greece Region Christos Moutsios were invited and participated in the "9th Forum for the Cohesion Policy of the European Union", which took place in Brussels, on the 11th and 12th April 2024.
The main objective of the 9th Forum was to record the important climatic, technological, demographic and geopolitical developments, and above all to adapt the cohesion policy to improve the well-being of all people living in the European Union.
The Regional Governor Fanis Spanos, the Regional Councilor of Boeotia Ioannis Pergantas and the Executive Secretary of the Central Greece Region Christos Moutsios attended:
Ø The opening speeches of Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission) and Elisa Ferreira (European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms), as well as the keynote speech of Roberta Metsola (President of the European Parliament).
Ø Discussions on competitiveness, development, social justice, as well as on the adaptation of the cohesion policy, in which European officials and the Minister of National Economy & Finance Kostis Hatzidakis participated.
On the sidelines of the Forum's work, the Regional Governor had talks with the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira, as well as with the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit, to whom Fanis Spanos presented social actions of the Region of Central Greece and then they talked about policies to address the demographic issue
The long working meeting with the European official Carsten Rasmussen and his colleagues Ioannis Solomonidis and Christina Karaitidis turned into an absolutely useful technical meeting. The head of the Greece-Cyprus department of the Directorate-General for Regional Urban Policy (DG REGIO) of the European Commission Carsten Rasmussen:
– He gave credit to the Region of Central Greece for the smooth absorption of the NSRF 2014-21 and above all for the achievement of all the important quantitative and -mainly- qualitative objectives of the implementation of the program.
- He had a long discussion with the Regional Governor Fanis Spanos about the new NSRF's goals and the implementation of the Integrated Spatial Investments, the necessary infrastructure projects, but also the actions to support entrepreneurship.
Upon completion of the Forum and the meetings, the Regional Governor of Central Greece, Fanis Spanos, stated: "We participated in the "9th Forum for EU Cohesion Policy" in Brussels and in the work on co-shaping the European Union's cohesion policy. Our strategic pursuits - claims are the strengthening of Cohesion policy resources (NSRF), the simplification of the procedures for the planning and implementation of the actions and the further decentralization of the programs.
»We also met with the European Commissioners Elisa Ferreira and Nicolas Schmit, with whom we had an extensive productive discussion on social policy issues, as well as work. We particularly highlighted the issues related to youth unemployment in many – especially the disadvantaged – areas of our Region. We presented, among other things, the "Bridge" platform, the "Together - All Equal" Disability Awareness Week, the actions we implement from the European Social Fund (ESF) and talked about policies we can develop to address the demographic issue.
»Our meeting with the European official Carsten Rasmussen and their colleagues was also particularly productive. During our three-hour meeting in his office in Brussels for the NSRF of our Region, we gladly received his congratulations on the completely successful -quantitatively and qualitatively- completion of the 2014-2020 PEP!
"Also, we talked in detail about the new program, focusing both on the general objectives (number of invitations, enrollments, absorptions) and on more specific actions and policies, such as Integrated Spatial Investments (Asopos, Oedipus, northern Evia, Sperchios, mountainous and disadvantaged regions, BAA of large cities), natural gas, road projects, school roofs, Culture, Civil Protection, energy upgrading and entrepreneurship support programs".
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