First speech by Thodoris Dritsas as Rapporteur at the Plenary Session of the Parliament,
during the discussion of the draft law of the Ministry of National Defence «Creation of a Maritime Tradition Park - Ratification of the donation agreement between the company ”Kyklops Non-profit Civil Society” and the Greek State»
«Nektarios Santorinier, dear colleague, friend, comrade, respected in the minds of your fellow citizens in the Dodecanese and in the Greek parliament and throughout Greece, a bouquet of flowers adorns the seat where you used to sit. And it tells us that if fate had not been so cruel and unfair to you, you would be here today in this seat as always to intervene with your insightful remarks on a bill concerning shipping or, more correctly, the historicity of shipping.
And I am sure that you would add to this historicity of shipping, which is inextricably and directly linked to islands and insularity, other elements to this due pursuit of the Greek state and the Greek Parliament. To the wonderful world of shipping for sectors related to coastal shipping, the main transport mode of communication between the islands and mainland Greece and the rest of the world, you would add a great many elements.
And of course you would not need to say that you, as the responsible Minister and as the initiator, coordinator and collaborator with a group of island MPs of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, but also of the University of the Aegean and other structures and persons, managed to finally establish, after twenty years of the pioneer Tasos Aliferis, the mayor of Tilos, the transport equivalent, as much as could be achieved in this period anyway - despite being neglected - and pave the way for the completion of this vision and the generalisation of this very important measure for insularity and shipping of the transport equivalent. There is too much, Nectarios, that will make us miss you all the time.
To your life partner, your wife, your children, all your friends, your family, your neighbours, your colleagues, our deepest sorrow and support.
PRESIDENT (Charalambos Athanasiou): Mr Dritsa, just a moment, let me explain why I am not putting the timer on. I do not set the stopwatch when colleagues refer to our deceased colleagues. When his main speech starts, I will set the timer. That's what we did the day before yesterday and the day before that. The world is not lost now. Mr Dritsa has spoken for two minutes more for a reference to his colleague. I will set the timer now. The world is not lost. We did it for Manousos Voloudakis, and we did it yesterday for Nektarios Santorinios.
Here, Mr Dritsas, you have the floor. Your time starts now.
THEODOROS DRITSA: Thank you very much, Mr President. You are honoured. First and foremost, it honours the memory of Manousos Voloudakis and Nektarios Santoriniou and every colleague who is leaving us and at such a young age. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, this bill divided us in a special way in committee. Mostly it divided us because it was impossible to agree on the meaning of clear Greek words. Because it is no accident. It came suddenly. It was prepared for two years without any of us knowing it. He said and Mr Hatzidakis, the General Staff of the Navy, the former Deputy Minister Mr Stephanis, then his successor Mr Hardalias, the mayor of Palaio Faliro, Mr Hatzidakis himself and the civil non-profit company «Cyclops», whose President is the donor of the 35 million. Nobody else found out, not the Parliament, not the parties, not the local community, not the Naval Museum of Greece, not the MPs, nobody. And it came as a package - because it is a signed contract - without any possibility of change, addition, improvement, treatment. It is a closed document, which either had to be accepted or had to be rejected.
And there was no accident there. At 10 p.m. that night the committee came up with tight options to call for a stakeholder hearing only to come back the next day at 10 a.m. for a bill they hadn't considered. What was the result? In a direct - because it was done in a direct way - or in an indirect way, the Athens Regulatory Plan Organisation, the Technical University of Athens, the National Technical University of Athens, the School of Architecture, the Urban Environment Laboratory were excluded, the Mayor of Piraeus and the Association of Imprisoned and Exiled Resistance Members of the Dictatorship with regard to the «Arrow», to which the rapporteur of the Majority, my dear colleague Mr. Hatzidakis.
And that's just an element of what the logic of this choice and what was prepared. Mr. Hadjidakis praises it because for him it is a life's work. I respect that, but we have a different view.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Naval Tradition Park in Paleo Faliro is indeed an old story that has gone through various phases. In 1989, the then Prime Minister Tzannetakis, a senior naval officer, announced the transfer of the site to the General Staff of the Navy, with the aim of creating an annex to the Maritime Museum of Greece, which has been operating in Piraeus since 1964.
Over the years and with a series of decisions, the historic ship «Battleship Averoff», then the «Arrow» of the Navy's rebellion against the dictatorship, the «Thalis», the first cable ship, docked in the natural harbour of the area, «Eugenios Eugenides», the sailing ship that trained the officers of the Coast Guard, the «Evangelistria», the traditional Aegean boat that operated in the Second World War, the famous three-masted «Olympias» and others.
The area was called the Naval Tradition Park and all the ships were and are floating museums, open to visitors and indeed very popular, all the ones I mentioned before and the «Averoff» and the «Arrow» and all of them. They are museums. The port facility with this use as a public floating maritime museum of ships and the wider area was originally zoned in 2004 by the Saronic coast decree with the agreement of the National Technical University of Athens and the Athens Regulatory Plan Organization. It was updated as a proposal in the study by the Urban Environment Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens in 2016 on behalf of the EDF.
About three years ago under New Democracy, the «Arrow» was expelled from Paleo Faliro, which was its natural place there, in combination with the proximity to the Salamis naval station for its adequate maintenance, and was transferred to Thessaloniki, where it is also visitable and popular and we at least have no objection to it for some years. But the reason for its removal is the expediency of powerful factors, which determine the choices of the Greek state as not due and with which we certainly do not agree and oppose.
About two years ago, the former Deputy Minister of National Defence, General Stephanis, signed a cooperation agreement with a Greek shipowner and resident of Paleo Faliro and citizen of Drama, who as President of the non-profit company «Kyklops» based in Drama, decided to donate to the Greek state 35 million euros, not in money, but in work, on the condition that «Cyclops» undertake exclusively the construction of the park on land and the overall redevelopment and transformation of both the sea and land area into a single entity.
After the completion of the construction of the project, the ownership - of dubious accuracy in this case, because there are many «windows» - of the park is transferred to the public through the establishment of the organization called «Odysseus, the Greeks and the Sea», a limited liability company. This is a legal entity governed by public law but not part of the General Government. It will be a joint stock company and will be governed by a seven-member board, two from the Ministry of Defence, i.e. the General Staff, one from the Ministry of Shipping, one from the Ministry of Finance and three from the «Cyclops», possibly one of which will be from the Union of Greek Shipowners.
DIONYSIOS HADJIDAKIS: Not «possibly», it will be.
THEODOROS DRITSA: Okay, it doesn't say so in the text. I'm talking about the contract.
This is also a difference between us, my colleague. We speak in terms of undeniable facts, not in terms of intentions. After five years, someone might say to me, «We did not say that». In any case, that is the way things are.
And there will be three from «Cyclops» without even the participation of experts or representatives of the local government, in this case of Paleo Faliro.
Prime Minister Tzannetakis had announced a museum. Historical ships are floating museums. The discussion about the Maritime Tradition Park for at least twenty years has referred to the creation of a new maritime museum, which will complete and expand the existing Maritime Museum of Greece.
Both the Deputy Minister, Mr.Hardalias, and the rapporteur of the New Democracy in the first meeting of the Commission also talked about a museum, to be more lenient. Then perhaps they realised the contradiction and started to take back that first definition and, in closing yesterday, at the last meeting of the Commission, the Deputy Minister told us that it is not a museum. We will see below why it is not a museum and indeed the way they are planning it is not a museum.
Greece, ladies and gentlemen, the oldest maritime country in the world, along with Phoenicia, which does not exist today as a country, with the largest modern merchant fleet, with a vast naval warfare history, a country of seafarers and seafaring, island seafarers, but also many even from the land area, sailors of mainland Greece, has in essence only the Maritime Museum of Greece, which is housed in Piraeus, in the Zea Marina, in Pasalimani, next to the traces of the ancient lighthouse and the settlement of the neo-Sioux of the 5th century BC.It is located in a small and inadequate space for all its great exhibits, its even more important maritime library and its publications, research and events.
I continue by referring to the Maritime Museum of Greece. It is housed next to the traces of the ancient lighthouse and the neo-scientific facilities of the 5th century BC at the Marina of Zeus in Pasalimani, but in a small and inadequate space for all the great exhibits it has, its even greater maritime library and the publications, research and events it carries out. It has existed and been maintained for so many decades and has held strong only thanks to the voluntary work of inspiring people who work themselves to the bone, the first and best of whom, if you will excuse me, is the President of the Maritime Museum of Greece, Mrs Anastasia Anagnostopoulou-Paloumpis.
For years now, its administration, the Piraeus Municipal Authority and the Piraeus community have been calling for the upgrading of the Maritime Museum of Greece and in view of the much-discussed plans for Paleo Faliro, they are calling for the Maritime Museum to remain in Piraeus, but also for its connection and co-functioning with the Maritime Tradition Park in Paleo Faliro as a single museum.
Everyone knows this, in the Ministry of National Defence, in the General Staff of the Navy, in the Ministry of Shipping, in the maritime and shipowning world. And yet, the arrangements firstly between Mr Stephanis and then Mr Hardalias and Cyclops were made entirely in secret, as I said. It was only when the draft law was tabled, with the contract and its annexes signed definitively and irrevocably, in order to become a law of the State, that it came before the plenary today under a summary procedure. No one knew anything, no one was consulted.
Therefore, the main point is that a great opportunity -existent, overripe and possible with the offer of the donation- to upgrade the Maritime Museum of Greece in the best possible way, namely its connection with the Maritime Tradition Park, is lost in the name of an alleged development investment of a commercial character -that is how it is to a large extent- with the background of maritime tradition.
The Maritime Tradition Park that will be built is ultimately a multi-purpose, multi-purpose, I would call it - not absolutely because in principle there are the floating museums and these will be, I hope, and I wish, and I am sure, the trump card of the site - more of a recreational park, where the few exhibits will function not as sacred relics of our maritime history and as museum exhibits of a great international maritime museum, a continuation of the tradition of the Maritime Museum of Greece -continuity and upgrading- but as entertainment events, some with quality, some without quality, some with reference to shipping and seamanship, some unrelated to it.
If one excludes, of course, the ships of which only the Averoff and the ancient trireme remain, with the addition, after reception work, of the submarine Proteus and the historic merchant ship Liberty, which has been docked for years in the Port of Piraeus also as a museum, the multi-purpose space that will be built will include an exhibition centre -we do not know what will be on display-, a conference centre and an events centre of an unspecified kind.
I asked yesterday whether it might be acceptable to make these halls available for weddings, christenings and other events for financial support purposes. What should we do? Realism. What have we seen these days at the Acropolis Museum? On Ash Wednesday at the Acropolis Museum.
It includes an events centre of an unspecified kind, a leisure and walking centre, catering outlets, a restaurant, a restaurant, a café, a cafeteria, a library - that's all - but there is no mention of a book collection or anything like that or whether there are any books. It also includes a digital information centre, a simulated small carnival in the coastal area, a facility for training in the sport of diving, underground parking with at least one hundred and thirty spaces and pedestrian bridges, terraces in an exceptional landscape, privileged for every walker with a background of the Saronic Gulf and the wider area.
Where are the thousands of maritime exhibits of our maritime history, stacked in warehouses or rotting around Greece, the showcases, the museum exhibitions, the libraries, the research and conservation laboratories, everything that the Maritime Museum of Greece needs and everything that a modern international maritime museum requires?;
It is a multi-purpose space, clearly at least half of which is aimed, to put it mildly, at consumers for recreation in a really, as I said, privileged natural environment with excellent views. Maritime tradition, and more importantly the museum, is becoming a pretext for commercialisation, from which we are obviously excluding - and I say this again - maritime museums.
Finally, we note that there are no other exhibits other than the floating museums, nor are there any plans to seek them out. No research is clearly mentioned and the Ministry of Culture, the only ministry responsible for any type of museum in the country according to the archaeological law, is completely absent from the whole plan.
I will shortly finish with technical, financial, environmental, archaeological and management issues. The contract itself, which has already been signed and is becoming law, provides in detail for a significant increase in the building factor and building height and an extension to the seashore and the beach. The height will reach up to twenty-two metres in some places. We have carabinerous overbuilding without reason next to the sea. Full exemption from all types of taxation, including VAT, is envisaged for the whole project and its equipment, while the operating status of the purely commercial uses mentioned above, such as restaurants, car parks, etc., remains unclear and undescribed.
Also nowhere in the contract - I would like here, Mr.Hadjidakis, to pay attention to me exactly because you are a local government official - payment of municipal fees to the Municipality of Paleo Faliro. It turns out that these uses will be assigned to entrepreneurs, either for the car park or for the restaurants, but nowhere are tenders provided for, and it is certain that we will have direct assignments from the otherwise state-owned organisation to some private individuals who will obviously be selected. Finally, there was no answer as to whether the Park will be ticketed. We asked, but received silence.
According to the Greek model, no archaeological study is foreseen unless archaeological findings are found. Then the Archaeological Service will be called in. Yet we are on the site where the first ancient port of Athens existed before the pirate ports were built. The excavations and the amazing remains of the Faliro Desmots in the adjacent Stavros Niarchos complex show that we will probably have similar developments. Are the donors aware of this or will the usual unscientific and unhistorical whining about the Archaeological Service holding us up start again?;
Also, the strategic environmental impact study, the SEA, which is provided for in the contract, follows, is placed after the law is passed, after the law defines every detail and legislates the conditions of construction of the project, the heights, the building factor, that is, those that determine the environmental impact of each project. Since these cannot be undone, because they are state law, what will the strategic environmental impact study come to do? And if it is negative, will it repeal the law?;
Now, for the management, when the project is delivered we have the familiar composition, which I mentioned in this, of the board, the complete absence of experts, archaeologists, aerial archaeologists, historians, etc.
There is a note that was presented to us according to which the Park will have an annual expenditure of EUR 3 million and an annual income of EUR 2.5 million. The remainder, approximately EUR 500 000, will be paid by the Greek State. This study has never been presented to us, and the report by the General Accounting Office, which is attached to the draft law, does not shed any light on the matter either. Quite the opposite.
Before I close, I would like to place on record the memorandum of the Maritime Museum of Greece, which complements in a very good way what I have said, and a table showing the evolution up to the current regulation of the use of building conditions. It is very indicative.
I want to make reference to the shocking and clear report on this bill by the House Scientific Service, which tells you, Minister - and I don't know, won't you take this into account?- that: ’In each category of uses, only the uses listed therein are permitted. It follows that the current legislation establishes a system of standardization of land use categories. Under that system, the planning administration is not free to mix the land use categories defined by decree, but must select for each area a category of land use with the content defined by the above provisions«, etc., etc. It says many other very important things, which from this scientific point of view also raise the need to freeze this bill, to go back, to reconsider it and to come back in real terms.
PRESIDENT (Charalambos Athanasiou): Finish up, Mr Dritsas.
THEODOROS DRITSA: I have finished, Mr President, with my final sentence. Our proposal is clear: a Maritime Museum of Greece with a large annex of international museum standards in Faliro, with a concentration of more fixed and floating exhibits -if possible-, explicitly protected by the archaeological law, under the absolute control of the two competent state institutions, the General Staff of the Navy and the Ministry of Culture. A continuation of the Maritime Museum of Greece, Zeus, in the model of the great maritime museums of the maritime countries and capital cities of Europe, London, Rotterdam, Barcelona and others. Not in a supposedly historical, in reality commercial - don't misunderstand me - half «Disneyland» museum pretending to be a museum without being one.
Thank you very much.»
Speech by Thodoris Kritsa
Speech of Thodoris Dritsas as Rapporteur at the Plenary Session of the Parliament, during the debate of the draft law of the Ministry of National Defence “Creation of a Maritime Delivery Park - Ratification of a donation agreement between the company ”Cyclops Non-profit Civil Society” and the Greek State».
