in Barcelona
3 to 5 Nov 2026
Greece is channelling approximately €325.3 million into municipal smart city and digital transformation projects through two programmes, according to a report published by the Greek City Times on 2 November 2026 that cites the Athens-Macedonian News Agency. The first programme, a €90 million Smart Cities budget financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility, serves 17 municipalities, while the second, the Digital Transformation of Local Authorities programme, carries total public expenditure of approximately €235.3 million under the 2021 to 2027 National Strategic Reference Framework and is open to all 332 municipalities in the country.
The two envelopes differ sharply in concentration. Dividing the €90 million by 17 municipalities gives an average of €5.29 million each, whereas the €235.3 million spread across 332 municipalities averages €708,735, a ratio of 13.4 percent that Kurrantly calculated from the reported totals.
The €90 Million Programme Targets 16 Large Cities and One Model Municipality
The Recovery and Resilience Facility programme was opened in December 2021 under the Greece 2.0 national recovery plan, when Information Society S.A., the Greek public company that implements digital projects for the state, issued an invitation to 16 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants and to the Municipality of Trikala, which was designated a model smart municipality. The 17 eligible authorities are Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Piraeus, Larissa, Volos, Peristeri, Rhodes, Ioannina, Chania, Acharnes, Nikaia-Agios Ioannis Rentis, Chalkida, Kordelio-Evosmos, Kallithea and Trikala, and each was given two months to submit a strategic transformation plan.
Participating municipalities select their own actions from a list of thematic areas that spans mobility, safety, health, energy, civil protection, environment, waste management, water resources, economic development, citizen participation and connectivity. Information Society S.A. monitors delivery of the programme, and its Managing Director, Stavros Asthenidis, has cited Trikala and Chania as early examples of successful implementation.
Trikala’s €6.93 Million Project Sets a Cost Benchmark
The European Commission’s reforms and investments project page for Trikala records a total budget of €6.93 million, of which the Recovery and Resilience Facility contributes €5,588,710, or 80.6 percent. The project covers central information, management and monitoring systems for the city together with applications and platforms for mobility, health and social care, energy, civil protection, water resources, waste management, economic development, citizen participation and connectivity.
Trikala’s budget exceeds the €5.29 million programme average by 31 percent, which reflects its role as the reference municipality for the other 16 authorities and gives them a concrete cost envelope against which to size their own plans.
The ESPA Programme Reaches Every Municipality but Funds Smaller Projects
The €235.3 million Digital Transformation of Local Authorities programme covers urban mobility and intelligent parking, energy management and efficient street lighting, civil protection and emergency response, digital services for residents and businesses, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure, integrated data management platforms and digital twins. At an average of €708,735 per municipality, a single authority could fund one platform or a small set of sensor deployments, but not the full range of listed project areas.
Anastasios Manos, Chairman and CEO of the IT and communications company DOTSOFT, said in the report that a municipality’s success will not depend on how many sensors it installs or how many applications it acquires, and he advised mayors to treat digital transformation as a continuing strategy rather than a set of separate projects. Asthenidis told the same outlet that smart parking, street lighting and waste sensors deliver value only when their data drives actual services and when the costs are justified, and he identified urban resilience as a major challenge for which digital twin projects require reliable data.
Delivery Metrics Will Come From Operating Data
The officials quoted in the report framed success in operational terms: whether sensor data feeds a service, whether costs can be justified and whether digital twins rest on reliable inputs. Those criteria apply differently to the two programmes, because the 17 Recovery and Resilience Facility municipalities each hold an average of €5.29 million and a strategic plan that Information Society S.A. reviews, while the 332 authorities in the ESPA programme each hold an average of €708,735 and must choose among seven listed project areas.
The Recovery and Resilience Facility programme, which began with an invitation in December 2021 and a two-month window for strategic plans, has been running for nearly five years, so Trikala’s results as the model municipality will be the first benchmark available to the smaller authorities now drawing on the €235.3 million envelope for platforms that they will have to fund from their own operating budgets once the grants are spent.
