Greek Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou said on Sunday that no one will ask permission for Greece to exercise its sovereign rights, and that this position comes with no exceptions. He was speaking in connection with the Greece-Cyprus electrical interconnection project.
"We want to have friendly relations, but we do not accept instructions," Papastavrou added.
The minister's comments came as the French company Meridian joined the interconnection project. Speaking to Greek public broadcaster ERT, Papastavrou said the French firm specializes in this field and had completed the electrical interconnection between the United Kingdom and Germany. He said the involvement of major foreign companies represents a vote of confidence in Greece.
Self-consumption energy plans
Papastavrou also repeated that new programs are being prepared, including a self-consumption scheme. He described it as a regulatory framework under which a bakery, a business, a household or an apartment building could produce energy for its own use.
"The goal is for each of us to produce or store energy that we then consume. This is what we call energy democracy," he said. He clarified that the scheme has existed for many years and has gained increasing momentum in recent years, and said the government's role now is to simplify it.
Comments on the elections
Asked about the elections, Papastavrou said the government has set itself a high bar of requirements. He said a great deal has been achieved, but that the government's aim is for overall national progress to translate into individual prosperity for every citizen.
On the possibility of electoral alliances, he said the government has an obligation to address citizens' problems daily and to keep improving at its work. He said the focus should not be on what other parties are doing, but on the daily commitment to meeting citizens' demands. He said that if the government does this, he genuinely believes there are realistic chances of winning a governing majority on its own.
