ΣΥΝΕΝΤΕΥΞΗ ΣΠΥΡΟΥ ΚΟΥΒΕΛΗ ΣΤON 104.4 RADIO

INTERVIEWER: The twelfth Symi Symposium, which took place on the island of Skiathos, debated, amongst other issues, the model of green development, a proposal contained in main opposition PASOK’s government programme. The debate’s conclusion was that Greece is capable of becoming Europe’s leading force in the sector of renewable energy sources, something which could offer to the country the possibility of changing its image internationally, as PASOK President Giorgos Papandreou underlined.

Now PASOK MP Spyros Kouvelis, who is the party’s representative on environmental issues, spoke at the symposium about the green economy and green development that his party proposed, and he joins us on the line to tell us more about these proposals. Good morning, sir. Thank you for joining us.

MR. S. KOUVELIS: Good morning. Thank you very much.

INTERVIEWER: You're welcome. We know that green development is the spearhead of PASOK’s government plan. It is an attractive choice of words, yet somewhat vague, if I may say so. Could you outline a few of its main components, in order to make it a bit clearer for us?

MR. S. KOUVELIS: Absolutely. Well, it is the spearhead of our programme, as you said very correctly, because we think that the main problem with Greece today is the development pattern that it has followed so far, which was based on some decisions that did not necessarily use the resources and the wealth of the country in the best way.

To a large extent, it used lots of resources in the wrong way, devaluing them, and we think that if we manage to turn the page in this sense we could make a lot of difference for this country.

Now, one of the axes of this green development, as you very correctly said, is the energy pattern. Greece is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of renewable energy: wind, solar power, geothermal, all that. And it has not been sufficiently developed, or actually it is very far from being sufficiently developed.

We think that if we put our cards in the right order and we give the right kind of incentives and planning for developing those resources, Greece could easily come up to having more than 30% in the medium term of renewable wind and solar power and all that.

And if this happens, that means that a lot of jobs can be created in doing so – we are talking about a few tens of thousands of jobs – and attract a lot of international investment as well, which is important because the point here is not to have lots of only country public spending but to do things properly so that we can attract international resources for that purpose.

One issue, then, is energy, but it is not the only one. There are a number of other things that are included in this green development, which I have to underline is not the policy for protecting the environment. It is the policy for a different kind of development in Greece. And so we want to expand it also to agriculture, because Greece has been based very much in agriculture that was trying to follow the competition, if you want, of the European Union, but with the wrong pattern. So in Greece you cannot for example produce massively cash crops, like wheat and cotton and all that, and try to compete with the rest of Europe. But what you can do is produce a lot of quality, especially in terms of products included in the Mediterranean diet: olive oil, fruit, these kinds of products.

And if you have them properly named and properly checked, then you can go out to the international markets and have a good presence in international markets. And the same goes for tourism, which I can explain.

INTERVIEWER: Now, you took part in the symposium during a period that is awfully pre-election-like. How do you feel the symposium went into getting the party’s message over to the people? What sort of response are you getting from the green development proposal?

MR. S. KOUVELIS: Well, I’ll tell you I was very, very enthusiastic the way that especially the international participants, because people in Greece know what this programme of green development is, but I was very enthusiastic about how they were entirely receptive of our plan. And actually they took it a further step down the road, because they were saying that through this green development we can actually make Greece not just one country that comes up in good competitive terms to the rest of Europe, but it could be the leader in some of those sectors, including renewable energy.

I was quite impressed to hear people from different places in the world, like the European Union or even the United States, saying that Greece can actually become a world leader in terms of renewable sources.

Now, obviously this is not an easy target, but it’s good to know that if we do it right we can go a long way.

INTERVIEWER: It’s a very interesting proposal, and we have to keep everybody posted on how you'll be putting it across to the people, with the elections coming up anyway, but between now and March at some point, I am guessing.

Thank you for joining us today. It’s been a great pleasure to talk to you, as always.

MR. S. KOUVELIS: Thank you very much. Thank you. It’s a great pleasure for me, too. Goodbye.

INTERVIEWER: Have a nice day. Goodbye. And that was PASOK MP Spyros Kouvelis.