Leader of To Potami Stavros Theodorakis meets Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu in Strasbourg.
“We’d rather invest in new luxurious hotel chains, or promote small initiatives for innovation and growth?”. This is the question posed by Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu, in charge of the National Strategic Reference Framework. The country needs planning, so that national and European sources can be integrated into a comprehensive regional development plan. This is the challenge, so that small initiatives can be reinforced and thousands of young people, who now leave their country, can find the means to express their creativity.
This seems to be of minor importance for current and former ministers, who only care about “concealing” all those projects that have been materialized in Greece by the European Union. Some of those projects include building schools, or constructing waste management infrastructure facilities.
To Potami MEP George Grammatikakis, who also attended the meeting, pointed out that “Our universities survive thanks to European projects”. In the meantime, Commissioner Cretu pointed out that the project for the construction of Thessaloniki Metro is mainly funded by the European Union. So, the question remains why there are still poor citizens in Greece, despite the fact that billions of euros are granted. “Why are there kids who spend three hours to reach their schools, while all you can see is wealth and luxury everywhere,” wondered the Commissioner.
The question is why Greek governments have never elaborated a national plan of cohesion, which would generate real growth and development opportunities all over the country. The question is why funds are not proportionally distributed, so that poor and unemployed people could benefit as well.
Is there time and money to now fix the problem or is it too late?
In April, To Potami and the Group of Socialists and Democrats will organize an event in Thessaloniki. Within this event, we will attempt to give answers to these questions and try to identify what went wrong and why inequality rises, in the midst of the crisis, instead of getting mitigated.
Photo credit: Theodore Manolopoulos
