Special plan for support to food service

Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis announced on Friday in Parliament a special support program for the food service sector so that restaurants, cafés and bars will be able to reopen when the lockdown is fully lifted. He went on to estimate that catering services and function venues will resume their operations from May.

“We are already in communication with GSEVEE [the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen & Merchants] and are designing the new ESPA [EU funding] program focused only on food service so as to support the sector further as we approach its reopening,” Georgiadis replied to a parliamentary question.

He also pointed to the prospect of food service and other event venues reopening, saying: “As of early May we will be able – I dare say – to reopen those enterprises. I’m only saying this because the people concerned will have to make their preparations and bookings. According to the projections of the World Health Organization and the experts, I believe we will be able to get to the end of this difficult course,” the minister said, apologizing to the enterprises forced to remain closed: “We have chosen to lose a lot and save lives,” he quipped.