The intention of the Ministry of Environment and Energy to overcome bureaucracy in licensing in the mining industry was expressed by the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, Alexandra Sdoukou, in the Economic Forum of Delphi. The deputy minister underlined that “a shortening of the licensing times for mining projects is required. I don’t know how we will implement the CRM for licensing in 2 years, but we have to do it,” she said, adding that this year 15 million euros were committed for research by the Hellenic Survey of Geology and Mineral Exploration.
Sdoukou emphasized that in order to unlock the national mining strategy, the regulatory rules, such as the mining code, need to be rationalized. It is necessary to shorten the licensing times of the mining projects.” She added that “we don’t want to waste any time in this effort, strategic autonomy goes through self-sufficiency.”
Speaking of a holistic value chain of raw materials, which includes extraction, processing and recycling of raw materials, so that the EU achieves its goals for an environmentally neutral economy by 2050 she noted that “the time of raw materials has come for the EU and Greece, with its mineral wealth reserves, can take the lead in reliable and safe investments. The EU moved faster than usual for the adoption of the new CRM (Critical Raw Materials) list, used in sectors such as industry, defense and telecommunications and the Greek land has hidden all these resources that we must see how we will use them.”
