The Just Transition Development Programme is to turn Western Macedonia into a pole of development, innovation and extroversion, through the creation of more than 2,500 jobs, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday during his speech at an event in Kozani for the presentation of the programme "Just Transition Development and Entrepreneurship: Western Macedonia is entering a new era." 
Mitsotakis described the programme as "pioneering" for European standards and noted: "The central purpose of this programme is none other than the creation of many new, well-paid jobs that will replace the job losses that phasing out lignite inevitably caused in your region."
Referring to the issue of delignitisation, he stressed that "it was a difficult, bold political decision, which, however, had to be inevitably accompanied by such a plan, in order to be able to give Western Macedonia, primarily, but also the area of Megalopolis, visibility and perspective."
The prime minister pointed out that the implementation of the programme was moving at high speeds, creating reasons to be optimistic.
 "We are still at the beginning, because we aspire to attract other significant large investments so that we can not only fill the vacuum of lost jobs but truly be able to turn Western Macedonia into a pole of development, innovation and extroversion," he underlined.