The Greek government presented a wide-ranging policy package covering recovery fund investments, the start of the school year, price controls, regional development and new rules for tourism and renewable energy at a cabinet meeting on August 24, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis announced.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis opened the session with remarks looking ahead to the Thessaloniki International Fair, before ministers moved through a series of major agenda items.
Greece 2.0 recovery fund review
A central item was a progress report on the Greece 2.0 recovery and resilience programme. Since 2021, 15 ministries have implemented 136 reform milestones, backed by 811 legislative and regulatory acts, including 66 laws, 105 legislative provisions, 17 presidential decrees, 166 joint ministerial decisions and 153 ministerial decisions.
Minister of State Christos-Georgios Skertsos and Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikolaos Papathanasis presented the cabinet with a summary of the fund's projects and reforms across energy, digital government, health, education, social cohesion, the natural and urban environment, civil protection, agri-food, research and innovation, culture, tourism and sport. Officials linked the reforms directly to recommendations made in a report by the Nobel laureate economist Christopher Pissarides.
The loan component of the fund has mobilised total investments of 46.6 billion euros, and the government said it is in the final stage of completing the procedures required for its last payment requests to the European Commission, with the aim of fully absorbing the available European funds.
New school year and education reforms
Planning for the new school year covers 13,842 school units, more than 1.27 million students and over 145,000 permanent teachers. On August 11, the education ministry announced 5,259 new permanent teaching appointments, bringing the total made since 2019 to 53,912. The government is aiming to have around 30,000 substitute teachers in place from the first day of classes.
The ministry is also digitising staffing planning through a system called EduPlan.AI, while placing particular emphasis on housing for teachers posted away from their home region. Measures include a doubled rent refund, the use of public properties for teacher housing, access to the defence ministry's housing programme, tax incentives and discounts on travel.
The Marietta Giannakou school renovation programme continues, with 669 schools already refurbished and studies for a further 500 due to begin in September. Schools are also being equipped with interactive systems, science labs, robotics equipment, sports gear and defibrillators. The government expects 44,164 interactive systems to be operating by the end of the school year, and it is also moving forward with the procurement of 718 buses for students with disabilities.
On educational content, the Digital Tutoring platform, which already has more than 410,000 users, is being expanded, alongside personalised artificial intelligence tools. Separately, 40,000 students will take part in the FinStart financial literacy programme, and the number of Innovation Centres is rising from 13 to 18.
In higher education, about 90 million euros has been allocated this year for student housing allowances, with 8,600 new beds planned through public-private partnerships alongside upgrades to existing dormitories. The government's target is to add a total of 10,000 new or renovated beds within the next three years.
Measures against high prices
On the cost of living, the government reported on progress under its National Social Agreement aimed at reducing prices. By August 20, 750 branded products and 100 private-label products had been included, with an average price cut of about 7 percent. Sixty-two suppliers and 10 supermarket chains are taking part, alongside a dedicated programme for school shopping baskets covering price cuts on 300 product codes.
The government cautioned that there is no room for complacency, warning that ongoing wars and international geopolitical developments are creating new inflationary pressures, particularly through oil prices, ahead of winter.
Regional and island development
The cabinet gave weight to the new "Region 2030" strategy, aimed at a more multi-centred model of development. The plan includes 50 Local Development Plans, one for each regional unit, alongside dedicated policies for mountain and island areas.
For mountain regions, new initiatives include the "Alliance for the Mountains" and "Living Villages" programmes, backed by 400 million euros in funding through the EU's ESPA framework. Fifty LEADER programmes worth 144.9 million euros and 163 rural road projects worth a combined 83 million euros are also under way.
For the islands, a permanent Government Committee on Insularity is being created. Funding for sea transport is being doubled to 180 million euros a year, with 25 new routes planned. Other measures include the Transport Equivalence scheme, a 30 percent reduction in VAT on 24 islands, and 2.3 billion euros in resources from the Islands Decarbonisation Fund.
New rules for tourism development
The government is also pushing changes in tourism. A new Special Spatial Planning Framework sets out clear rules for tourism investment depending on the characteristics of each area. Regions are divided into zones and islands into groups, with different terms governing construction, accommodation capacity and environmental protection.
The new rules for the coastal zone are particularly strict: within the first 25 metres of the shoreline, new construction and development are banned, subject to specific exceptions set out in law.
New spatial framework for renewable energy
The cabinet also approved a new Special Spatial Planning Framework for renewable energy sources. It introduces stricter limits on solar and wind projects in environmentally and culturally sensitive areas, including Natura protected zones, forests, wetlands, archaeological sites and landscapes of special natural beauty.
Solar power stations are banned from Natura 2000 protected areas, forests and forest land, Ramsar wetlands and small island wetlands, national parks, declared nature monuments and aesthetic forests, landscapes of special natural beauty, cultural heritage protection zones, areas with protected agricultural terraces, roadless areas and swimming beaches.
Wind farms are banned outright in Attica and the Metropolitan Area of Thessaloniki, in areas above 1,200 metres in altitude, in Ramsar and small island wetlands, in landscapes of special natural beauty and national park core zones, at historic sites and ancient monuments, and in specific nature protection zones.
Further restrictions, rather than outright bans, apply to wind development on islands smaller than 300 square kilometres, with exceptions for critical or public-interest infrastructure or system safety needs, in out-of-plan areas earmarked for tourism and recreational use, in parts of active quarrying and mining zones, in roadless areas and on swimming beaches.
Combined with a separate Special Spatial Framework for industry, the government said this creates, for the first time, a holistic and long-term framework for how Greece should develop over the coming decades. It argued that development governed by clear rules is sustainable development, respecting local communities and the environment while protecting investment, which it said needs a stable and predictable framework so that what is and is not permitted is clear from the outset.
