25 Posts in Technology

“Technology is currently at the heart of geopolitical competition and the EU wants to be a player, and not a playground,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said. To better protect its relatively open market, the European Commission wants the member states to immediately carry out risk assessments of its most sensitive industries, including advanced semiconductor, artificial intelligence, quantum and biotechnologies. Those are considered “highly likely to present the most sensitive and immediate risks related to technology security and technology leakage” and are up for the highest level of protection. Even though the European Commission refrained from putting the onus on any specific country, the EU itself has repeatedly said that it must be better prepared to develop measures to protect trade and investment that China might exploit for its own security and military purposes. “China indeed is a big elephant in general terms, but in our recommendation, we are country agnostic,” Jourova said. Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, said that the measures would reach well beyond Beijing.

The project is the result of a collaboration among SNFCC, the Natural Gas - Hellenic Energy Company and Petros Petropoulos AEBE, official importer of Jaguar, Range Rover, Defender and Discovery. In the first stage of the project, 24 charging points are availble at SNFCC's car park building, including two chargers for people with special needs. The project is expected to be completed in 2024 with 50 charging points in total, all up to 22kW (AC). This new service operates on a 24-hour basis and is provided free of charge to SNFCC visitors for one year. Visitors can also get the chance to spend one weekend per month testing the capabilities of Range Rover's plug-in hybrid vehicles, in a joint effort to raise public awareness of the green transition. At the press briefing, SNFCC General Director Dimitris Protopsaltou noted that "with sustainability and social awareness of green mobility as common ground, this collaboration certifies that the SNFCC is a model of public space and public-private partnership. We are delighted that today we join forces with two valuable partners who respect and actively honor the mission of the SNFCC. "Natural Gas - Hellenic Energy Company General Director Yannis Mitropoulos said that this collaboration "confirms our company's commitment to adopting initiatives in the direction of innovation and sustainability", and that "we are steadily investing on the development of services that contribute to the penetration of electromobility in our country and the improvement of energy efficiency." Finally, Michael H. Economakis, Executive Chairman of Petros Petropoulos AEBE and President of the Hellenic Recycling Recovery Company noted that "Petros Petropoulos AEBE is actively participating in one more outstanding initiative, demonstrating in practice its commitment to achieving a series of goals that contribute to sustainable development. This is evidenced also by other initiatives such as the listing of the Company in the Athens Stock Exchange's Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) Index, and the development of "Ecoshift" Project - supported by the Recovery Fund - which aims to promote solutions for sustainable urban development."

PPC said the deal was a "transformation move, in a market that is changing globally" in an era of energy transition. "With the acquisition of Kotsovolos, PPC advances even faster in its transformation into an integrated provider of products and services," the Greek company said. More specifically, The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024, subject to approval by Currys shareholders and Greek competition authorities.   The acquisition of Kotsovolos accelerates PPC’s transformation into an integrated provider of products and services and opens a new page in the retail electricity market, in which physical store and logistics networks, distribution centers and electrical installation and device repair workshops are emerging as a strategic advantage for companies in the sector. PPC was the first to ensure, through the acquisition of Kotsovolos, quickly and at low cost, exactly what electricity supply companies need today: the “passport” to enter each consumer’s home and sell, along with electricity and natural gas, new products brought by the energy transition and modern technology. For households and businesses, what until a few years ago was a simple grid connection, has now become a whole new world of solutions for energy saving, zero footprint, self-generation and smart solutions that make life easier. “Upon completion of the agreement, PPC will be a different company: an integrated, customer-centric provider of products and services on a digital and physical level,” according to the company’s chairman and CEO, George Stassis. “The acquisition of Kotsovolos, as part of our €9 billion investment plan, significantly accelerates the implementation of our business plan, which is based on three pillars: green development, digitization of all operations and customer-centricity,” he said. “Kotsovolos is the No 1 company for electrical and electronic devices in Greece and has the ability and experience for everything that PPC needs to find customers in a physical and digital environment, to show them the solutions and services of the new era of energy, to hand them over and install them,” emphasize PPC sources. With the acquisition of Kotsovolos, PPC gains access to the chain’s 95 stores (92 in Greece and three in Cyprus), with a total area of 143,000 sq.m., and a total of over 1,500 employees.     

The store is one of only 10 such stores in Europe, serving as a vote of confidence by Apple to the iStorm prospects in Greece. The store opening marks the continuing interest of Quest Group, owners of iStorm, in investing in the Greek and Cypriot markets. iStorm is the only Apple Premium Partner – APP retail store chain dedicated to Apple products in Greece and Cyprus.

Amazon has completed more than 160 wind and solar projects in 13 European countries, with a total power capacity of 5.8GW, enough to cover the energy needs of 4.7 million households in Europe annually. The project in the Central Greece Region follows completion of a similar solar power project in Poland last year.

The General Secretariat of Information Systems and Digital Governance received the first prize in the category Digital Transformation of the Year for the Public Sector for the Interoperability Center and the second prize in the Digital Opportunity/Inclusion category for the Public Sector, for the MyDeskLive service. The Interoperability Center is a central hub for the interconnection of all state information systems, in order to directly obtain the required operational data for the digital services to citizens and businesses and the processing of administrative procedures. MyDeskLive is an innovative digital platform that enables individuals and legal entities to schedule appointments for transactions with the agencies, either in person or by video conference through the same digital environment.               To date, over 400,000 such digital appointments have taken place. Furthermore, WITSA awarded IDIKA, a supervised entity of the Ministry of Digital Governance, with the Global Innovation & Tech Excellence Award in the category of innovative eHealth solutions. The award is a recognition of the importance of the information system developed by IDIKA for the implementation together with the Ministry of Health of the Fofi Gennimata Program regarding breast cancer tests. The World IT Congress 2023 is aimed at address key themes on "Advanced Mobile, Communications, Security, Multimedia, Vehicular, Cloud, IoT, and Computing".    

The new service, the announcement said, is expected to significantly facilitate access and improve the experience of visitors to the sites, as they can avoid long queues and pay for their tickets with their cards, phones or smart watches. Visa collaborated with Cardlink for the installation of 10 machines at archaeological sites for the first time in Greece, in what is viewed as a flagship project that will enhance the experience of thousands of tourists and help in the digitalisation of the country's most-visited sites. Admission tickets can also be bought at traditional ticket offices, through B2B ticketing and the online app hhticket.gr, the official booking engine used by the Organisation for the Management of Cultural Resources, which is responsible for the above sites.

Telecoms ministers from 18 countries either rejected or criticized the proposed network fee levy on tech firms at a meeting with EU industry chief Thierry Breton in Luxembourg on Thursday, the sources said. That echoed comments made last month by EU telecoms regulators’ group BEREC. Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia want Big Tech to shoulder part of the network costs and have found a receptive ear in the European Commission’s industry chief Breton, a former chief executive of France Telecom and French IT consulting firm Atos.   Alphabet Inc’s Google, Apple Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp have rejected the idea of a levy, saying that they invest in the digital ecosystem. The ministers cited the lack of an analysis on the effects of a network levy, the absence of an investment gap and the risk of Big Tech passing on the extra cost to consumers in the form of higher prices, the people said.             They also warned about the potential violation of EU net neutrality rules which require all users to be treated equally, barriers to innovation, and a lower quality of products. The critics included Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta and the Netherlands, the people said.   Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary and Italy backed the idea while Poland, Portugal and Romania either took a neutral stance or had not adopted a position, they said. Breton is expected to issue a report by the end of June with a summary of feedback provided by Big Tech, telecoms providers and others which will indicate his next steps. Any legislative proposal needs to be negotiated with EU countries and EU lawmakers before it can become law.

Prior to arriving at Piraeus, embarked staff from Carrier Strike Group 12 conducted a series of exercises with the Hellenic Navy's frigates 'HS Aegean' and 'HS Nikiforos Fokas' as well as and submarine 'HS Katsonis' "to enhance partner interoperability and demonstrate commitment to security in the Mediterranean," a Navy statement said. Piraeus is USS Gerald R. Ford's third stop while deployed to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe (NAVEUR) area of operations and "provides an opportunity to enhance the strong partnership between the US and Greece," the statement added. The Gerald R. Ford deployed from Norfolk on May 2. It is the US Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier and its class of aircraft carriers (Ford) has introduced 23 new technologies that operate with a 20% smaller crew than Nimitz-class carriers. The aircraft carrier is named after the 38th president of the United States (1974-1977), paying tribute to his lifetime of service in the Navy (reaching the rank of lieutenant commander), the US government, and the nation. Previously, the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) paid a port call to Piraeus in February 2023.

The website and systems were taken down for security reasons after the attack, while the ministry and the National Cybersecurity Authority are investigating. Authorities say they have found no stole data so far. During Wednesday, a fake social media account supposedly belonging to caretaker Culture Minister Giorgos Koumentakis posted the fake news of the death of world-famous singer Nana Mouschouri. A subsequent post claimed that the actual owner of the account was Tommaso Debenedetti, an Italian school teacher and author who has created several fake Twitter accounts, often announcing the deaths of fampus personalities. In the past, he had pretended to be then-Culture Minister Myrsini Zorba posting the death of French-Greek film director Costa-Gavras. Greek Police’s Electronic Crimes division is investigating, the ministry says, without linking the two incidents.

In a total of 21 hours in the past month (May 2023), RES exceeded 90% of the energy needs, and in fact for two consecutive days (6/5 and 7/5) green electricity generation exceeded (>100%) the total demand for 7 hours. This once again confirms Greece's leading role in renewable energies in the European Union.

The festival opens with prolific multi-instrumentalist and composer Tilemachos Moussas in an ambient-experimental program, and closes with French singer and ethnomusicologist Francoise Atlan, renowned for her Sephardic, Arabic and Andalusian repertoire. Admission is free of charge, though seats must be pre-booked via ticketservices.gr.