Greece has more than met its targets in European Union fund absorption and is improving constantly, EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn said yesterday after meeting with Development and Competition Minister Costis Hatzidakis.

He further added that Greece's absorption rate could serve as an example to other eurozone countries: "If we classify countries according to their performance on issues of EU fund absorption, Greece would be classified fourth, which means it is by far much higher than the average of the European Union."

Hahn congratulated the minister on the programme submitted two days ago covering the next NSRF funding session (2014-2020), "which truly follows the outlines we discussed in the past," he said. The programme, he noted, gives emphasis to strengthening regional policy, meaning that all 13 of Greece's districts will have their own business programmes. "Until recently, only 22% of the funding related to regions, but now this amount will rise to 35%," he said.

The ten-year "Ergo Athina" development plan for the City of Athens, which is directly financed by EU structural funds, was outlined on Thursday by Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis and Hahn.


Kaminis noted that this was the first comprehensive development plan, which is based on boosting entrepreneurship, improving the quality of life, revitalizing the urban web and managing the social crisis. Referring to the direct funding by the European Commission with 120 million euros, he underlined that Athens is set to become a metropolitan municipality.