Today the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the members of the new EU governing body which is made up of six vice-presidents and 20 European commissioners. The new Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism will be the Greek Apostolos Tzitzikostas who is first vice president of the European Committee of the Regions. Tzitzikostas is part of the New Democracy party joining the People's Party European.

Commenting on the appointment of Tzitzikostas, the Deputy Minister of the Greek Prime Minister and Government Spokesman, Pavlos Marinakis, underlined that 'the Sustainable Transport portfolio highlights the geopolitical importance of Greece and its strategic position as a country that is the gateway to the trade, energy and networks both to the Western Balkans and to the towards Eastern Europe, and as the north-eastern vertex of the Mediterranean. This, said Marinakis, reflects the important role of our country in connectivity and transport routes and strengthens both its position on transport routes and energy to and from Europe is its central role as a bridge to the Middle East and North Africa. The portfolio of the Greece manages important EU projects and resources, such as the Connecting Europe Facility, the EU's financial instrument to finance strategic investments in transport networks, in energy and digital. Indicative of its importance is the fact that in the period 2021-2027 it moves resources of the order of 26 billion euros for the transport sector alone. For the first time The Greek Government spokesman also pointed out that the portfolio of our country expands to include Tourism, which is the "heavy" industry of our country. Greece is already a pioneer in the adoption of measures for the development of the sustainable tourism and as a tourist country must contribute with proposals and initiatives in the direction of sustainable tourism and improvement of infrastructure".