On the 17^th of October 2019, at the Hellenic Parliament’s Special Permanent Committee on Research and Technology under the chairmanship of MP, Mr. Ν. Tagaras, the Director of CERTH/HIT Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris, together with the Principal Researcher and Chair of the Clean and Autonomous Vehicles Lab of HIT Dr. Maria Gkemou, presented the views of the Institute on the topic: “New Technologies in Transport Sector and their Impact in Climate Change”.

The presentation consisted of 3 parts:

1. Brief presentation of CERTH/HIT (its vision and goals, its premises and facilities in Greece including its new branch offices in Piraeus and Rhodes, its key research activities and labs, its position in European research and the inflow of European funds as well as the key positions of its Director, Dr. E. Bekiaris).
2. Discussion on the most novel green technologies for road and maritime transport in commercial and research level and their potential to climate change, the electromobility penetration in Europe and in Greece and the global key challenges for electromobility being technical, regulatory, operational and business/financial. This part closed with the overview of the legislative framework in Europe and in Greece and how this serves for the benefit or not of the wide adoption of electromobility.
3. Presentation of four proposals for legislative measures, including a documented explanatory statement and a complete mapping of legislative changes and adjustments required. Three of them were proposed to facilitate the Institute’s (and other Institutes with similar profile) research activities and promote deployment of its results in Greece, whereas the last one was proposed for the benefit of electromobility penetration in Greece.

The Institute’s position, as being reflected in the presentation, attracted the interest of the Committee. A wide discussion followed on the status of electromobility in Greece vs the respective conditions across Europe, whereas the lack of charging infrastructure, the incomplete and incentivisation and the lack of Strategic Plan on national level were commonly recognised as the key limitations with regard to its penetration in Greece. The potential and ways for boosting Greek entrepreneurship in this domain were also discussed. The Institute's proposals for the adjustment of legislative measures were met with consensus and the members of the Commission agreed to promote them to the respective Ministries for further implementation. The Committee also welcomed the role of the Institute and its top level Research Excellence on Pan-European level, as well as the transfer of know-how at national level.