In yesterday’s meeting of the Government Council for Economic Policy, it was announced that a Special Secretariat for mountainous areas will be established and will report directly to the Prime Minister.
According to ND MP for the Dodecanese, Mr. Manos Konsolas, this development reflects positively on the work of the Committee of Regions and especially on the work of the new, autonomous Subcommittee for Mountainous Areas, which was created in April 2024. The goal is for development policies to reach every corner of the country and to initiate policies for the revitalization of mountainous regions.
In his statement, Mr. Konsolas notes that the creation of a Special Secretariat for mountainous areas is a decision that demonstrates the Prime Minister’s personal interest and aims at regional development. The objective is to design and implement a national policy that will focus on development and address the specific challenges faced by mountainous regions.
He also highlights the following challenges for the future:
– Updating the definition of mountainous areas and municipalities in Greece, in order to establish the spatial basis for a national policy concerning these regions.
– Creating financial tools to support development processes and ensure transparency in their management, such as a Mountain Fund.
– Recording the main problems of mountainous areas, such as demographic decline, energy poverty, socio-economic inequalities, and so on, while also identifying opportunities and advantages for local communities, such as forest resources, energy potential, production of quality products, etc., along with the formulation of applied policy proposals.
