Introduction of the European Group for Territorial Cooperation HELICAS

The European Group was established in November 2017 as civil non profit-making association. As its president was elected Yanis Butaris, Mayor of Thessaloniki and as Vice President – Prof. D.Sc.(Econ.) Statty Stattev, Rector of UNWE and Pavlos Tonikidis, President of Kilkis Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vice President of the Union of Hellenic Chambers of Commerce. Members of the Group from Greece are the municipalities and their associations, chambers of commerce and universities and institutional member of the Group from Bulgaria is the UNWE. 

The meeting was held in Sofia at the invitation of the Rector of UNWE Prof. D.Sc.(Econ.) Statty Stattev who greeted the guests and outlined that the network should widen and cover more countries (in the picture below).

The President of the Group Yanis Butaris outlined that the future objective would be the good joint work and closeness of partners. 

HELICAS sets objectives related to the cooperation in the field of preventing and mastering the natural disasters, cross-border environmental protection, contribution to the sustainable management of common natural resources and ecosystems, search for technological innovations and support of scientific research, planning the local cross-border policies of human resources mobility, reinforcing the economic cooperation through promotion and support of synergies between the enterprises, structures for support of entrepreneurship, etc. 

During the meeting a treasurer, secretary and executive director were elected and topics related to the budget, expenditures, teams, strategies and planning of the European Group were discussed. The Board of Director discussed also decisions related to the vision of the Group.