Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,
I want to thank CPMR, the Province of North Holland as well, for the kind invitation.
I am very privileged to participate
to this high-level Conference.
According to my presentation I separate
it in two main parts.
The first part is a little bit
generalized. Asks for answers to the question about the role of the Region of
Peloponnese within European investment efforts in Greece. Peloponnese
is one of 13 regions of Greece, the Southest of the mainland.
The second part is dealing more
specifically with the issue of the implementation of the Strategy and the Policies of Blue
Growth in the Region of Peloponnese (RoP) through the application of
proper measures taking advantage of the corresponding funding means that
support the effort.
Regarding the first part, I would say
that there are five distinguished actions taken by the RoP in order to serve
the investing European efforts in our region and, lato sensu, in Greece.
Shortly, these five Key-Facts, are the
following:
1. The efforts and the actions are
described analytically, through SWOT/PEST/GAP Analyses, Porter’s 5 Forces, Social
Cost – Benefit approaches and Input-Output Methods in the continuously
upgrading and modifying Integrated Strategic and Operational Plan supported by Specific Sectoral and Thematic
Programms, all being in harmony with Sustainable Regional Development
as it is described by the European 5th Programming Period 2014-2020
issues. Something that we also did in the past, since 1/1/2011, as far as the
issues imposed by the 4th Programming Period 2007-2013 are
concerned.
2. The efforts are expanded in the adoption
of policies and actions regarding Climate Change constituents
especially in matters of RES (Renewable Energy Sources) and
Green Development especially in Tourism, Agricultural Production and
Substructures of Transportation, finding means of funding from two main
sources: (a) BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer)
cooperation of the Public and Private Sector with a very distinguished example
the Integrated
Regional Waste Management (b) The application of a big variety of other
European
Programms including Programms of the European Economic Area (EEA)
Grants.
Needless to say, that on this basis we are processing the regulation and
the methodology of using two new means of funding that are related to BOOT
solutions through the Regional Fund of Entrepreneurship and
Development and the European Fund for Strategic Investment
(EFSI) proposed by the President of European Commission Jean
Claude Yuncker.
For that purpose, we have already started
the Regional
Smart Specification applications in the field of Tourism.
3. Issues that up to the moment are
performing quite well in RoP, despite the economic crisis in Greece, where RoP
managed to achieve many good results regarding the absorption and the materialization
of the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 (along with the
Sectoral Operational Programms of the Central Government that were granted to
us) as well as relatively good performance as far as macroeconomic indicators
prove (big increase in Exports, big increase of Tourism, unemployment
reduction, anti-poverty support, expansion of substructures, etc.)
4. To cut a long story short all the above
are concentrated under the slogan that we use: RoP a smart European Region incuding
the European culture and European governance in our field of administration.
5. In order to overcome some difficulties
imposed by the Greek Legislation regarding the Relation between Central
Government and Regions that may affect the operation and the
performance of the Regions, our Head of the Region Dr. Peter Tatoulis
has started a political struggle with a big variety of methods in order to
manage to integrate, deepen and expand the Legal Authoritization and Decentralization
of the Greek Administration System for the benefit of Sustainable Development
that must have the Regions as the more effective means for confronting the
crisis and start the new road to growth and development.
Regarding the second part of the text, it
is obvious that it is not necessary to repeat the issue of the Strategy of the
Integrated Blue Growth (including matters regarding Blue Economy, Blue Innovation,etc.),
but to come straight to the point as far as the fields of applying Blue Growth
are concerned, such as:
1. Knowledge of the Sea by creating
Regional Institute of Sea Sciences and Sea Biotechnology with legal certainty
and security in Blue Economy.
2. Sea Energy in two ways: Wave Energy and
Floating Renewable Energy Sources.
3. Sea and Coastal Tourism and
Civilization, including classical types of tourism as well specific and
alternative tourism (e.g cruising,
diving tourism, submerged ancient cities, etc.).
4. Sea Biotechnology from every point of
view with the cooperation with the Institute and other bodies of Science and
Research .
5. Sea Inspection with Monitoring Systems
and Safeguarding.
6. Maritime Ports (e.g. cruising) and Ship
Navigation (especially short distances and connection with islands).
7.
Water Airports.
8. Fishery - Aquaculture.
9. New type of specialized and flexible
Shipyards (traditional boats).
10. Continental self and Exclusive Economic
Zone sources exploitation according to the rules and contitionalities of the
International Law, United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea and the European Union Law.
Some of them are already started with funding from RoP΄s income e.g. study for Energy by Sea Waves and
Floating Wind Generators, Diving Tourism including a Net of Archaeological
issues (submerged civilization), Harbors for Cruising, etc.
All efforts include a brand new way of
approaching, meaning the use of Innovation and the connection with the Regional
Smart Specialization.
Funding is based in motivating BOOT
solutions and using sources from NSRF (National Strategic Reference Framework)
2014-2020 Operational Programs (Sectoral and Regional), Horizon 2020 and other
European Programs.
We work on Sea basins strategies to ensure
tailor-made measures and to foster cooperation between countries. Some of them
will be suggested to participate in Interregional Cooperation especially in the
fields of Mediterannean Sea as well Adriatic-Ionian Macroregion.
Finally:
It is ongoing an effort of RoP to start a
Multi Dimensional (down up, up down) Consultation with Social Partners and NGOs
based on an already existing Basic Guidelines Study on Blue Economy, Growth and
Innovation in order to proceed fast and further on in the exploitation of the
chances for Sustainable Regional Blue Development as we did in the past for the
Green Development.
Thank you for your attention.
