Partnership Agreement (PA) 2014-2020 

The PA (Partnership Agreement for the Development Framework) 2014-2020 constitutes the main strategic plan for growth in Greece with the contribution of significant resources originating from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) of the European Union.

The PA, through its implementation, seeks to tackle the structural weaknesses in Greece that contributed to the economic crisis, as well as other economic and social problems caused by it. Moreover, the PA 2014-2020 is called upon to help attain the national targets within the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The target of the Europe 2020 Strategy is to foster growth that is:

• smart, with more efficient investments in education, research and innovation;

• sustainable, because of the decisive shift to a low carbon economy, and

• inclusive, focusing especially on job creation and poverty reduction.

The PA vision of growth is to contribute to revitalising the Greek economy through the recovery and upgrading of the productive and social fabric of Greece and the creation and maintenance of the sustainable jobs, spearheaded by outward looking, innovative and competitive entrepreneurship and on the basis of reinforcing social cohesion and the principles of sustainable development, via 20 Operational Programmes from which 7 are Sectoral and 13 are regional.

The architecture of the PA 2014-2020 includes:

• Seven (7) Sectoral Operational Programmes (including programmes for Rural Development and Fisheries) covering one or more sectors and whose geographic scope and implementation applies across the country
  Thirteen (13) Regional Operational Programmes (ROP), one for each of the 13 administrative regions of the country, including regional-scale activities.

MEK SA during the current programming period has actively participated and implemented projects approved in the framework of the following Operational Programmes:

Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020 (EPAnEK)

The pivotal strategic objective of EPAnEK is to enhance the competitiveness and extroversion of enterprises, to facilitate transition to quality entrepreneurship, while at the same time advancing innovation and growth of domestic added value. The Operational Programme Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation occupies a central position in the country's efforts to create a new production model that will lead to development and will strengthen the competitiveness of the Greek economy by leveraging private financing.

The new model brings to the fore productive, competitive and outward looking sectors of the economy, such as tourism, energy, agri-food, the environment, the supply chain, information and communication technologies, health and the pharmaceutical industry, creative and cultural industries, materials – construction.

Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning

The operational programme "Human Resources Development, Education and Life Lifelong Learning" for the implementation of the European Social Fund and the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) in Greece aims to tackle unemployment, focusing on creating quality education opportunities, skills upgrading and sustainable employment for all and with a view to enhance social cohesion. The programme contributes directly or indirectly to the national objectives for employment, education and combating poverty as part of the development strategy of the Europe 2020 Strategy which in particular aims to increase the employment rate to 70%, reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by 450,000, reducing early school leaving to 9.7% and achieve a tertiary attainment rate of 32%. More specifically, the programme promotes employment and supports labour mobility (53% of total funding), invests in education, skills and lifelong learning (43%), and marginally promotes social inclusion and combating poverty (3%) since such actions will be covered by the 13 Regional operational programmes and finally technical assistance (1.7%).Main beneficiaries of the planned actions include youth not in Education, Employment and Training (NEETs) from 15-24 and from 25-29 years old, long-term unemployed, women, unemployed with low qualifications and unemployed 30-44 years, pupils and students in all levels of education, teachers and researchers.

Additionally, MEK SA participates in projects funded under the following Regional Operational Programmes (ROP):

• ROP Eastern Macedonia and Thrace

• ROP Central Macedonia