The statement was delivered by Minister of Environment & Energy, Kostas Skrekas, addressing a broad meeting with representatives of productive entities held in Heraklion, accompaning Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tour in Crete, in the Region of Crete.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of State, Akis Skertsos, the Deputy Minister of Development & Investments Nikos Papathanasis, the Deputy Ministers of Finance Apostolos Vezyropoulos, Development & Investments Yiannis Tsakiris, Research & Technology Christos Dimas and the Secretary General of Internal Policy Coordination Thanasis Kontogeorgis.
In his interventions, Mr. Skrekas underlined, among other things: "We have allocated 8 billion euros to deal with the energy crisis, of which only 30% came from the state budget. We absorb the overwhelming majority of energy price increases for many months. We prioritized very small businesses. We removed the adjustment clause, increased competition and enabled households and businesses to choose their provider. We will continue to subsidize as long as the crisis continues...
Referring to the government's clean energy policy in the region, Mr. Skrekas noted: "We are making it possible with a law that we will introduce in the coming weeks, to create professional energy communities that can install RES, connect directly to the high voltage and they install systems with batteries therefore achieving lower energy costs. We are upgrading the networks within Crete, almost 100 million for high voltage, 50 million for medium and low voltage, while we are implementing necessary infrastructures in waste and wastewater.
The Minister of Environment & Energy closed his intervention by referring to hydrocarbons and the research that is being done, when he said that they are "a new potential source of wealth" and added that "if this effort is completed, we could extract and cover a significant percentage of of European consumption".
The minister also presented the government's Development Program for the Region of Crete in the field of energy and the Environment.
