The Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, participated in the opening ceremony of the Green Transition Forum 5.0 on the topic "Enhancing Competitiveness and Innovation in the Central and Eastern European Region" which was organized in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the presence of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Roxana Minzatu, the Minister of Energy of Bulgaria, Zhecho Stankov and the former Prime Minister of Italy and rapporteur of the Report on the Future of the Single Market, Enrico Letta.

During the opening of the conference, Papastavrou emphasized that the European Union's energy dividing line constitutes an obstacle to the competitiveness of both the Greek economy, businesses and households, as well as Europe itself, while he pointed out the need to immediately activate the task force proposed in January 2025 by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in order to reduce the inequalities in electricity prices between the countries of northern Europe and the countries of southeastern Europe.

Papastavrou said that in this area the EU has proven that there is still no real union, since the market remains fragmented and the region is not essentially interconnected. He also referred to the recent report by Enrico Letta, according to which the single market is essential to address the major challenges of the time. "We must mobilize investment to meet Europe's enormous needs through a more integrated and robust European financial market capable of channeling savings towards investment needs. We must build a new alliance between member states to achieve decarbonization," Papastavrou noted.