Greece to announce preferential treatment for children as much of Europe suffers from population decline

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Christos Giannakidis, an army sergeant, was planning to have a second child when Greece’s debt crisis exploded last year, ending any hopes of growing a family.

Having one son is expensive enough, he says, especially the cost of transporting him to remote areas in northeastern Greece, where the number of children has plummeted in recent years.

Most afternoons, he drives 13-year-old Nicholas 50 kilometers (31 miles) to play soccer with several other children scattered around the area. It is even more difficult if Nicholas needs a pediatrician.

“You have to be a hero to have a family these days,” Giannakidis said on the sidelines of a recent soccer practice. “To have a second child, more money needs to come into the house.”

Many European countries are suffering from declining birth rates that experts say threaten their long-term economic health, but Greece is a striking example of how difficult it is to reverse this trend. It has become.

Births in 2022 hit the lowest in 92 years, according to the latest data, due to years of austerity, a debt crisis that led to immigration, and changing attitudes among young people. Preliminary unofficial data indicates a further decline in 2023.

Greece has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, with some villages not recording a single birth for years.

The government plans to announce new measures to boost birth rates in May, officials told Reuters.

Officials drafting the plan, including the minister for families, said the plan includes cash transfers for families, affordable housing for young people, financial incentives for assisted reproductive technology and a workforce for immigrants. This includes participation in.

The full scale and cost of the plan is not yet clear.

But similar measures have remained flat in other EU countries in recent decades, and demographers expect there to be little difference in Greece. Even the plan’s promoters have doubts.

“It would be a lie if I said that certain ministers in certain ministries can reverse this trend,” Greek Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Affairs Sofia Zacharaki told Reuters.

Still, she said, “I need to keep trying.”

The magnitude of the problem is evident in the village of Ormenio, where Giannakidis lives, and the Orestiada regional municipality, one of the poorest municipalities in the country.

The population of Orestiada, a crop-growing region bordering Turkey and Bulgaria, fell by 16% between 2011 and 2021, according to census data. The village of Ormenio was once full of children, but now two-thirds of its 300 residents are over 70, said Stratos Vasiliadis, the village head.

Nicholas, the only 13-year-old boy in Ormenio, spends most weekends playing video games by himself. He wants to quit at the age of 18.

“Maybe I should let my sister in Germany study,” his father said.

The silence that hangs over Ormenio is occasionally broken by the sound of church bells ringing through shuttered stores and empty playgrounds, or by the sound of mobility scooters as older men head to cafes to play backgammon.

Most of the pews in the church are empty during Sunday Mass. The trains that pass through Ormenio used to carry tourists, but now they transport tanks bound for Ukraine.

As part of the Conservative government’s tough immigration policies, a newly expanded border fence in the region is preventing illegal immigrants from entering the country.

“We used to meet at weddings and baptisms. Now we meet at funerals,” said 61-year-old Crisoula Ioannidou. “The number of births is very low.”

Vasiliadis’ brother, Sodoris, a speech therapist, organizes art workshops for about 20 children from surrounding villages. He said the isolation hampered their social skills. One boy’s stutter worsened because he had no friends to talk to. Another person is cycling alone through the deserted streets of a village.

Mr Ormenio’s situation is mirrored to varying degrees in Greece and the EU, where governments such as France, Italy, Norway and Spain have spent billions of euros on child-friendly measures, often to little avail. There is.

Greece’s economy has improved in recent years, but Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says the declining birth rate is a “national threat” and a “ticking time bomb” for pensions.

Ahead of the stimulus payments scheduled for May, the government created maternity benefits and baby products tax breaks and extended maternity benefits for the private sector.

These show little sign of functioning.

“This is one of the most serious problems facing not only Greece but the entire EU,” Finance Minister Kostis Hadjidakis told Reuters. “That’s our priority…whatever it is.”

Part of the government’s challenge is to overcome the trauma of the debt crisis. Just a few years ago, when protests over government austerity measures were intensifying, youth unemployment was over 60%. It remains at around 25%.

Hundreds of thousands of young Greeks left. The remaining properties are often overvalued on the real estate market due to inflation and rising rents. Many people continue to live with their parents until their 30s.

The city of Orestiada suffered heavy damage. A sugar factory that provided hundreds of jobs has been closed and fenced off in an overgrown compound. Many other businesses are also boarded up.

The primary school closest to Ormenio, which serves 17 villages, is being thinned out. All first graders – her four children – can fit into the teacher’s morning hug. Principal Dimitris Rosidis said it will be gone next year.

“The future is not bright,” he said.

First-grade teacher Nektaria Mropoulou says she wants to start a family, but her monthly income is 1,000 euros ($1,083), a third of which goes toward renting a small apartment. She crosses to Turkey to buy cheap gasoline and her mother helps pay her bills.

“When you’re in your 30s and earning €1,000, it’s natural to think about whether you should start a family,” she said, adding that politicians were missing the point.

“Giving the first child 20 or 50 or 100 euros is not going to solve the problem.”