The transfer of responsibility for the supervision of water companies to the RAE does not hide attempts to privatize them. This was supported by the Minister of Ecology Kostas Skrekas in parliament, however, leaving open the possibility of a merger of municipal water companies and further “entry” of private individuals into servicing projects through partnership with the state. However, the President of the RAE himself described the proposed scheme as “cumbersome”, while arguing that the Office could not carry out its new tasks without additional staff. Water and waste management businesses have also focused on understaffing their services.

The discussion of the multifaceted bill of 263 articles in the Production and Trade Committee of the Parliament continued yesterday and today with the positions of bodies and representatives of parties. According to the plan, the bill will be put to the vote of the Plenary Assembly on March 14.

Discussion with departments was practically monopolized by the transfer of supervision over water management organizations to the RAE. “The draft law reflects the credibility of the authorities, but carries a significant administrative burden,” said RAE President Thanasis Dagumas. “In my three years in office, 48 executives have left since the beginning, we have done a huge amount of work, and our leaders are at the limit of their abilities,” he reported.

Speaking on the same topic, many agencies claimed that the new scheme paves the way for the “privatization” of water-related services. “Municipal enterprises are charitable, non-profit and profitable,” said Mayor of Larissa Apostolos Kalogiannis. “Municipal enterprises are controlled—price policy by municipal councils, budgets—by chartered accountants. The bill states that the new Authority oversees the implementation of water concession agreements with third parties. So what is the government doing? He’s shaping this market.” “The utility company for water supply and sewerage of Larisa reimburses 120% of the cost, i.e. another 20% and, in addition, has a loss in drinking water of 28.5%,” answered Mr. Skrekas. “That’s what we want to change, we don’t want to privatize the water supply.”

Accordingly, as stated by Giorgos Papanastasiou, President of the Environment Committee of the Central Union of Hellenic Municipalities (KEDE), “neither waste management agencies (FODSA) nor municipalities operate within the market, therefore they do not develop competitive relations”, noting that it therefore does not make sense to include them in the regulatory body.

Apart from the Association of Enterprises and Industries (CEB), which argued that “the bill contains important clarifications and new provisions that are expected to improve the business environment,” other bodies were not generally positive about the controversial legislation. “After two and a half years of implementing new regulations on special environmental studies, we are seeing new delays. We would rather have poor management plans than none at all,” said Spyros Psaroudas of the Callisto organization. “Today the Special Ecological Investigations are in consultation, and now their status is changing again. It is not known how the process with constant changes will go. The only thing that can be said for sure is that in Greece the political leadership hates planning, especially in relation to the environment,” said Theodota Nanzu, head of WWF policy. “On the one hand, the size of protected areas is increasing, on the other hand, we allow them to do business that does not contribute to their protection,” said Nikos Bokaris, president of the Panhellenic Union of State Foresters. “The bill is a patchwork of rules and amendments that further deregulate urban and spatial legislation, the spatial planning system, and contain a number of photographic provisions,” said Lucas Triantis of the Association of Urban Planners (SEPOH). “We are seeing an oxymoron. On the one hand, the government makes it illegal to change the use of forest land to agricultural land and, instead of imposing sanctions, rewards violators with the sole criterion of subsidization,” said Antigoni Caradonda from the Union of Public Foresters (EEDDY).