With energy, transport and digital technology as main topics, The Economist' conference entitled "Sea of Europe: Routing the Map for Economic Growth" is taking place in Thessaloniki today and tomorrow (17-18.02). The conference is under the auspices of the Greek Presidency of the EU Council and has the support of the European Commission office in Greece.

This summit focuses on the EU "Connecting Europe Facility," which will fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe’s transport, energy and digital networks. It aims to make Europe’s economy greener by promoting cleaner transport modes, high speed broadband connections and facilitating the use of renewable energy, expanding its energy networks in line with the Europe 2020 strategy.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos will speak at the conference dinner and Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport of the European Commission Siim Kallas will deliver a speech during the official launch.