Environment commissioner: Green Deal has to be inclusive
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met Thursday with European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans & Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius at the Maximos Mansion in Athens.
Mitsotakis stressed that Greece was fully focused on the effort to make the green transition in Greece “work for all” and described Greece’s agenda on these issues as “bold but realistic.”
He said the Greek government was looking forward to cooperating with the European Commission in order to make the best use of the funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, and to putting the green transition in motion while also creating a great many jobs.
“I believe that we can very convincingly support our arguments on the need to protect the environment. Reinforcing biodiversity is, at least in Greece’s case, not only an imperative need from an ecological point of view but also a self-evident choice from an economic point of view,” he added.
European Commissioner Sinkevicius, for his part, noted that Greece’s approach to the Green Deal – namely, as an opportunity – was very important: “What we are trying to do is to prove that the Green Deal is not an environmental law or legislation for the climate, but a horizontal change that will affect many different sectors. Naturally, of course, in this transition there must be a place for everyone, because the Green Deal can only be implemented if everyone participates. If anyone is left behind, then the Green Deal will fail.”
