During his meeting with Greek Minister of Development Kostis Chatzidakis, Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn pointed out that money should flow to markets and that this is an imperative need.

According to Mr. Hahn, the funds from the new NSRF program (new programming period 2014-2020) will shift from infrastructure sector to innovation, outward orientation, education , employment , tourism and SMEs.

Commissioner said that “for the next NSRF we have submitted our proposals to the European Commission, aiming to a qualitatively different NSRF program which will not give emphasis on infrastructure, but on entrepreneurships, outward orientation and innovation projects as well as on programs for education and employment. We want the new NSRF program to contribute decisively to Greece’s exit from the crisis”.

Also, Mr. Hahn expressed his satisfaction on the efforts of the Greek government since thanks to these efforts, Greece is ranked 28 in EU in terms of absorbance of the European Cohesion Fund. He also stressed that he was satisfied seeing that the money given to the banks is pumped to the market and small businesses.

He also added that they will reach soon an agreement with Greek government in the framework of cohesion policy, so as the funding for the new regional programs will get the approval required as soon as possible.

The Greek government, said Greek Minister of Development, has already submitted its proposals and both sides expressed their optimism that the discussion on the areas of funding will reach to an end. The amount to be invested by the EU in Greece for the period 2014-2020 is 15.52 billion euros.