The 250-euro benefit that will be given to low-income pensioners, with payments starting on Monday, was the first topic in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ weekly Sunday review of the government’s actions over the previous week.
“The new, now permanent, additional assistance of 250 euros will be paid into their accounts earlier than scheduled, from tomorrow, Monday. It will be the first of a series of increases they will see to their income, since from January they will see an increase in their receipts due to both the reduction in tax rates and the annual increase in pensions,” the prime minister said.
He also pointed out that a 50 pct reduction in the so-called “personal difference” that blocked certain pensioners from receiving pension increases will kick in for the January pensions, which will be advanced to December and be paid before Christmas.
The prime minister pointed out that these were just some of the measures included in the draft 2026 budget, which he described as “a budget with a national and developmental character, which boosts the income of millions of citizens.”
Mitsotakis next addressed the issue of compensation to farmers, noting that subsidies will begin to be paid within the next 10 days, following the European Commission’s approval of the new action plan, starting with 70% of the basic assistance. “The remaining 30% and Measure 23 will follow, after the necessary checks, while all the smaller programmes will also be paid by the end of the year,” he added.
The prime minister clarified that pasture will only be permitted to be declared in the regional unit of residence and neighbouring regional units and that the money that remains after the implementation of the new system will be redistributed domestically, in a second-round allocation to “honest farmers”, and not be returned to Brussels.
For the livestock breeders who lost animals to sheep pox, Mitsotakis revealed that the government will soon announce additional support measures to compensate for loss of income, in addition to the existing compensation.
“The only thing that we ask them to do is to strictly observe the biosecurity measures and cooperate with the rural development ministry and the national scientific committee for tackling sheep pox,” he said.
Mitsotakis also referred to the results after the first year of implementing the new judicial map. “The data from Just Stat, the justice observatory, show that the time required for issuing a decision by the courts of first instance has been cut in half, from 705 days to 364 days. The improvement concerns 92% of judicial workload nationwide. The most striking change concerns the Athens Court of First Instance, the largest in the country, where the estimated time for issuing a decision dropped from four years to 1.5 years! There has also been significant improvement in Thessaloniki, where the time fell from 12 to 7.5 months, and in Piraeus, from 12 to nine months,” Mitsotakis said.
Other topics touched on in the review included an extension of the deadline for the “My Home 2” programme until May 31, 2026 and other changes so that more households may benefit, the measures designed to prevent the sale of alcohol and tobacco products to minors, action to police unlawful firearms use on the island of Crete, the improvements to the Disability Certification Centres and Disability Cards, the premier’s trip to Singapore and actions designed to bring back highly educated Greeks who have emigrated abroad.
The prime minister also noted the fact that this week marks the third anniversary since he started posting the weekly reviews, noting that this had become an “exercise in discipline and accountability”.
