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A quiet but powerful shift is underway in a town nestled near Greece’s northern border.
As the country exits its coal-fired past and reimagines a cleaner, tech-driven economy, local officials and national leaders are pinning their hopes on a new hub, Florina’s Regional Business Support Structure. Launched this week in a ribbon-cutting ceremony filled with symbolism, optimism, and no small political gravity, the center is part of Greece’s €1.6 billion Just Development Transition (JDT), an EU-first program transforming regions historically reliant on fossil fuels.
“This is the home of small and medium-sized businesses,” declared Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis to a crowd of community leaders, entrepreneurs, and clergy. “It’s not just infrastructure. It’s a promise to our young people that they can build a future right here.”
Florina, once heavily tied to lignite mining, now finds itself at the heart of one of Europe’s most ambitious regional development experiments. The new business structure, backed by METAVASI S.A., aims to deliver free advisory services, access to low-interest financing, and training programs to the entrepreneurs expected to lead this economic makeover.
A Regional Blueprint
The hub isn’t just a local affair. A suite of high-ranking officials attended its opening, including Deputy Ministers Thanasis Kontogeorgis, Nikos Tachiaos, and Florina MP Stavros Papasotiriou. Their message was clear: Florina is a prototype, a live case study for how post-carbon regions can reinvent themselves through public-private alignment and smart capital deployment.
Critically, the program already boasts 98 approved investment plans in the Florina region alone, which is forecast to create 593 jobs. Add in an energy-efficient renovation of the local hospital and a new €15 million psychogeriatric care center, and the initiative is more than economic theory; it’s bricks and mortar, and lives have changed.
Europe’s New Development Frontier
What sets Greece’s JDT program apart, according to EU observers, is its dual focus on economic diversification and social reintegration. Entrepreneurs aren’t just being trained to build businesses; they’re being prepared to lift entire regions.
With a historic €32 billion national public investment budget planned across 2025–2026, the stakes and opportunities are enormous.
“This isn’t charity. This is competitive economic development,” said Pelopidas Kalliris, head of the special authority overseeing the program. “We’re building a framework for long-term viability.”
For Florina’s residents, the hope is not just policy. It’s personal. After decades of watching young people leave in search of opportunity, the town is hoping this time, the future is staying home.
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