Things will not be easy in the coming winter, not just in Greece but throughout Europe, government spokesperson Yiannis Economou said in an interview on SKAI television on Tuesday.
Noting the French president’s warning about an “end of abundance”, Economou said there were two different aspects to the issue: “As regards sufficiency in the supply chain, no one can be absolutely certain when they see and hear all that is happening in the rest of the world; we are doing everything possible not to get to that point, with judicious actions to conserve energy, especially in the public sector, by giving incentives and encouragement, because one cannot force people, in our private lives as much as we can. For the time being, we are not [considering] measures of an obligatory nature.”
He said the government has worked out Greece’s possible reactions in even extreme scenarios as regards supply chains and energy sources, securing alternatives to natural gas for generating power, while clarifying that there are no plans for power cuts in private life at this time.
Economou referred to the almost 2.0-billion-euro support package to help households and businesses cope with the increase in electricity prices in September, saying the government will continue to support Greek society for as long as the crisis lasts.
He said the money was coming from two pillars, one of which was the new pricing mechanism for electricity that created a barrier to excessive profits and abolished the adjustment clause so that money would go to the Energy Transition Fund, enabling the support of consumer electricity bills. The second pillar was the state budget, as the Greek economy’s performance created sufficient reserves to finance this support.
He repeated that the prime minister’s announcements at the Thessaloniki International Fair will show Greek society that this support will continue, in a bid to alleviate the impact of the crises, even though it was “impossible to fully eliminate the cost of this imported high cost of living”. He also emphasised that the country’s fiscal stability will not be placed at risk.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
