Interview of Nikos Mantzaris to the newspaper Chronos Kozanis and journalist Argyro Xanthopoulou on how the decisions of the EU Summit about the Recovery and Resilience Fund influence the EU Just Transition Fund and the European Green Deal.
Nikos Mantzaris noted that a severe cut of the Just Transition Fund led to a reduction of available funds from €40bn to €17,5bn. Such a severe cut jeopardises the just transition of coal regions across the EU. Especially for Greece, this cut is estimated at about €1bn compared to the revised proposal announced by the European Commission in May. However, options are still available to amend the resulting impact both at the national and the European levels. On the one hand, Greece must secure more national funds for its lignite regions and on the other hand, at the European level, the allocation criteria of the Just Transition Fund must be amended in order to become really just for all the member states.
Nikos Mantzaris noted that since Just Transition is a core part of the European Green Deal, the ambitious EU agenda is now in danger of collapsing, if the transition of the coal regions fails. In order to avoid such a prospect sufficient funding must be channeled to the regions and the sectors where they are needed the most.
The interview was published in Greek at the newspaper “Chronos” on July 21, 2020:
You can read the Green Tank’s report on the allocation criteria for the Just Transition Fund here.
