Lastly, the EU competitive programmes mentioned above (INTERREG,
URBACT, H2020 etc.) can also support the funding of the CE implementation in
Greece. An overview of the H2020 participations indicates that there are 83 Greek
participations in bioenergy projects, 356 in biomass and 110 in various
sustainability-related research projects, indicating high research skills.
The deficient implementation, divergent from the goals and the relative position
of the country compared to the EU average, may be attributed mainly to the
following bottlenecks and path-dependent, embedded deficiencies. In order to
catch up, the Ministry of Environment and Energy designed a too ambitious to be
implemented programme, while ministries have been following their own policy
agendas with regions and municipalities designing their policies following major EU
and national guidelines but with limited interregional interaction.
The business sector is not sufficiently sensitised and involved.
2 This is attributed
both to the overall problems faced by private investment in the country, in particular
during the 10-year long financial crisis,
3 and also to the complexities and long-term
nature of profitability of investments in the areas of waste management, recycling
and energy/materials efficiency. This has led to tensions between the private and the
public sector and resistance to change. An additional issue undermining the profitability of aluminium and glass recycling is that Roma empty the recycle bins and
steals the most valuable among streams diminishing the scale and profitability of
private undertakings.
Table 12.4 Number of projects funded by Regional Operational Programmes in 2014–2020
Region
Nr
€
%
Western Macedonia and Thrace
5
6,738,603
2.63
Attica
7
32,465,713
12.69
North Aegean
12
21,198,956
8.28
Western Greece
3
11,469,229
4.48
Western Macedonia
5
19,541,720
7.64
Epirus
12
68,666,395
26.83
Thessaly
6
21,362,330
8.35
Ionian Islands
3
3,189,799
1.25
Central Macedonia
1
49,600
0.02
Crete
35
71,212,199
27.83
Total
89
255,894,544
100.00
2 This is a generic statement; few success stories exist but are small scale for the time being.
3 Greece ranks 79th in the World Bank list of Ease of Doing Business https://openknowledge.
worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/32436/9781464814402.pdf and 59th in the Global Competitiveness report. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2019.
pdf
12 Circular Economy in National Smart Specialisation Strategies: The Case of Greece
209
URBACT, H2020 etc.) can also support the funding of the CE implementation in
Greece. An overview of the H2020 participations indicates that there are 83 Greek
participations in bioenergy projects, 356 in biomass and 110 in various
sustainability-related research projects, indicating high research skills.
The deficient implementation, divergent from the goals and the relative position
of the country compared to the EU average, may be attributed mainly to the
following bottlenecks and path-dependent, embedded deficiencies. In order to
catch up, the Ministry of Environment and Energy designed a too ambitious to be
implemented programme, while ministries have been following their own policy
agendas with regions and municipalities designing their policies following major EU
and national guidelines but with limited interregional interaction.
The business sector is not sufficiently sensitised and involved.
2 This is attributed
both to the overall problems faced by private investment in the country, in particular
during the 10-year long financial crisis,
3 and also to the complexities and long-term
nature of profitability of investments in the areas of waste management, recycling
and energy/materials efficiency. This has led to tensions between the private and the
public sector and resistance to change. An additional issue undermining the profitability of aluminium and glass recycling is that Roma empty the recycle bins and
steals the most valuable among streams diminishing the scale and profitability of
private undertakings.
Table 12.4 Number of projects funded by Regional Operational Programmes in 2014–2020
Region
Nr
€
%
Western Macedonia and Thrace
5
6,738,603
2.63
Attica
7
32,465,713
12.69
North Aegean
12
21,198,956
8.28
Western Greece
3
11,469,229
4.48
Western Macedonia
5
19,541,720
7.64
Epirus
12
68,666,395
26.83
Thessaly
6
21,362,330
8.35
Ionian Islands
3
3,189,799
1.25
Central Macedonia
1
49,600
0.02
Crete
35
71,212,199
27.83
Total
89
255,894,544
100.00
2 This is a generic statement; few success stories exist but are small scale for the time being.
3 Greece ranks 79th in the World Bank list of Ease of Doing Business https://openknowledge.
worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/32436/9781464814402.pdf and 59th in the Global Competitiveness report. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2019.
12 Circular Economy in National Smart Specialisation Strategies: The Case of Greece
209