Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met at noon with the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, at Maximos Mansion.
At the beginning of the meeting they had the following dialogue:
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: So good to have you in Greece to discuss, you know, very very interesting topics. We’ve worked very hard over the past five years to bridge this innovation gap which we inherited back in 2019. I do think that we’ve made significant steps in the right direction, be it the digital transformation in terms of the interface between the state and citizens and businesses.
Our gov.gr site has been truly transformational in that respect, focusing on improving the quality of our digital infrastructure, creating what I think is a very vibrant ecosystem for startups and new technology companies, which has, to a certain extent, also been able to bring back people from abroad because we have a very talented pool of Greeks who left Greece during the crisis.
Of course, now the next step, we will be completing very soon our AI strategy, which will be submitted to me within the next weeks, because we also want to see how Greece can position itself in this sort of emerging ecosystem of artificial intelligence, where I think we also have something important to contribute.
But of course, your portfolio is very broad. We have a new team in place in charge of research and innovation. I’m very interested to hear your thoughts on how we can further strengthen the cooperation between the Commission and Greece.
Iliana Ivanova: Thank you so much, dear Prime Minister. First, let me say it’s a great pleasure to be here today on such a sunny, beautiful day in beautiful Athens for a wonderful occasion to launch two events, the Trusted Investor Network and also the scaling up of the European Innovation Council Club. These are two very important milestones in fostering the European innovation ecosystem. As you mentioned yourself, this has become a top priority in our agenda for the next Commission.
As you know, competitiveness will be the number one priority, and what a better instrument to foster that through research and innovation. I’m really happy to be here. I had a wonderful discussion this morning with the colleagues that are sitting just in front of us, with Deputy Minister, with a range of investors, innovators, Greek companies that benefited from the European Innovation Council and are exemplary in how we should tackle that innovation gap that you mentioned. So I’m looking forward, just after our meeting, we will do the official launch of the two events.
I want to encourage really Greek companies, innovators, researchers to take active part of the programmes that are available from the European Union, because this is what they are for, really to foster and to encourage this entrepreneurial innovator spirit that we want to retain and remain in Europe.
