Nikos Mantzaris referred to the need for a revision of the allocation criteria for the, currently under nergotiation, European Just Transition Fund in an article by Machie Tratsa.
The article was published in Sunday’s “Vima” on March 8, 2020 under the title:
“The strange criteria of the EC for the lignite funds”
and you can download it from here.
According to the proposal the European Commission under the European Semester, some of the wealthiest islands in the South Aegean, such as Mykonos, Crete and Rhodes, are among the eligible areas for this fund totaling € 7.5 billion. At the same time the five “lignite” municipalities in Kozani, Florina and Arcadia are already facing enormous unemployment problems, which are projected to erupt without immediate assistance, due to the forward-bearing de-lignitization of Greece.
It is therefore obvious that in order to be truly just, the criteria based on which the European Just Transition Fund is to be distributed, will have to change from those originally proposed in order to take into account both the speed of de-lignitization as well as the dependence of the local economies on the lignite/coal-related activities.
The lignite regions of Greece must receive the maximum possible assistance from both European and national resources in order to effectively tackle the very big and urgent challenge of transforming local economies deeply dependent on the lignite activity. Both the Greek Government and the Greek MEPs must work in this direction in Brussels, where negotiations on the relevant Regulation governing the Just Transition Mechanism are already under way.
