Today its president visits Larisa. SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance, Alexis Tsipras, who met with the President and members of the Board of Directors of VI.PE Business Association. Larisa.

Evangelos Gagos, Chairman of the Board of Directors, welcomed Mr. Tsipras and touched on two important issues facing industrial production in Larisa. Firstly, this is the importance of having a national industrial policy, and secondly, the issue of energy. “Energy is a very big issue, it’s a huge economic thorn in the side of business,” Mr. Gagos said, adding: “It’s unthinkable in 2023 to discuss Industry 4 and not have access to self-evident energy sources. . We are asking to be able to produce the electricity we need and even pay the costs ourselves.”

For his part, the president of SYRIZA-PS, Alexis Tsipras, touched upon both the issues and the positions and obligations of the party. “The big question the next day is what productive model we will have so that the country can recover,” Mr. Tsipras said, adding: “We kept the country in euro, paid off the debt, withdrew from the memorandums. However, the country’s deviation from the European average continues.”

Mr. Tsipras elaborated on the issue of the country’s production model, saying: “We cannot recover with the recipes that led us to bankruptcy in 2009. No economy can rely solely on its tertiary sector. There is no doubt that tourism is the engine of the Greek economy and we need to strengthen it even more, but we need to seriously invest in the primary and secondary sectors, with a plan and a strategy. In the primary sector, invest in high-quality, competitive products. In the secondary sector, invest in production and in products that are competitive not only in the country, but also for export.” In this context, Mr. Tsipras emphasized that “one of the most important problems of the Greek economy today is the sharp increase in the trade deficit, that is, we import much more than we export.”

After that, Mr. Tsipras spoke in detail about energy and the great significance of the SYRIZA government reform for the energy community. “One of the most important reforms we left behind in 2019 was the energy communities. Which gave the prospect that communities of cooperatives, manufacturers, municipalities, crafts and industry could simultaneously become self-producers and self-consumers of the energy they need to work. Unfortunately, this reform remained frozen for 4 years. The energy crisis shows us how important this reform was and how important it remains.”

“Negative indicators for energy consumption”

Alexis Tsipras referred to the country’s negative performance in terms of electricity costs, stating that “Over the past two years, the country had the most expensive price of electricity before taxes and subsidies in all of Europe, and for many months it was the country with the highest the price of electricity. “Europe” at an expensive wholesale price throughout Europe and noted: | On the one hand, this mechanism of dirty profit, and on the other hand, the fact that the reform of the energy communities remained unclaimed, led a very large part of the country’s productive world to a standstill.

“No funds have been invested in the network, so there is no available network space. At the same time, the regulatory framework for energy storage has not advanced. The client conditions for accessing the network are set, while the priority should be given to production units. You applied for access to a saturated grid here, and priority was not given to your application, but to a large business group with more megawatts than required by law. Even in this important issue, in order to revitalize the business of the entire district, customer relations, bribery, confusion, relationships with powerful business groups are priorities. Whereas the energy communities were for the exact opposite reason. Give priority and access to small communities that meet the need for strengthening the production process. This is a key dividing moment in our programs and positions,” said the President of SYRIZA-PS.

“Our commitment is that 50% of new licenses will be given to small communities.”

Finally, Mr. Tsipras touched on the positions and commitments of SYRIZA-PS. “RES is the future, and the licenses that will be issued first should be granted to enterprises, cooperative farmers, municipalities and communities, and secondly to large business groups. Our commitment is that 50% of new licenses will be awarded to small communities and industrial areas. Our commitment is to prioritize the need to invest in the grid to create more space to regulate the energy storage structure. At the same time, finally, there should be a zoning plan, since today the licensing process is simplified, but without the possibility of its implementation, we have reached a dead end. We must immediately resolve this issue, in the interests of the productive forces of the economy, the secondary and primary sectors of production.”