Evs. Harhalakis: «Leaders of developments the island municipalities»

For «municipalities and mayors of two and three speeds» and for «gap widening between the island and the large municipalities of the country», spoke the mayor of Kythera, Eustratios Charhalakis, in a Facebook post summarising his speech at the annual conference of the C.E.D.E..

Below is the post of the Mayor of Kythera and Chairman of the Islands and Cohesion Policy Committee of the KEDE:

«Colleagues,

Once again we are at the annual regular conference of the KEDE and unfortunately we are discussing the obvious. Having the experience of many similar conferences, as I have participated in all the conferences and assemblies of the last at least 20 years in various self-governing capacities, I note with regret that the island municipalities - a total of 71, i.e. 21% of the country's municipalities - remain the tail end of the developments, resulting in a widening gap with the large municipalities and unfortunately we are talking in 2022 about municipalities and mayors of two and three speeds.

As President of the Islands and Cohesion Policy Committee of the KEDE, in excellent and continuous cooperation with my colleagues from all the islands of our country, I summarize the main issues that concern our Municipalities, which have also been the subject of discussion and unanimous decisions by our Committee:

1. Health structures on the islands. There are huge problems of understaffing in island hospitals, health centres and regional clinics. Telemedicine is not a solution.
2. The way the CAP is distributed is unconstitutional. No account is taken of insularity as explicitly stated in Article 101 par. 4 of the Constitution. The State is breaking the law and is doing so without any hesitation.
3. A change in the categorisation of island municipalities is required in order to match the categorisation of mountain municipalities.
4. Consolidation of the possibility of appointing at least 3 Deputy Mayors in each Municipality and counting the positions of unpaid Deputy Mayors in the entitled positions of scientific assistants.
5. Alignment of fixed-term fire safety staff contracts (currently 4 months/year) with the duration of the fire season (6 months).
6. Simplification of procedures for the approval of traffic regulations.
7. Preparation of studies on the carrying capacity of the islands, with a centralized procedure by the Ministry of Environment, in the light of the decision of the CoE No. 1037/2022 (Section E).
8. A new simplified framework for the licensing of municipal projects and the removal of the unthinkable powers of certain government departments that systematically and professionally delay major projects and hinder local development and the absorption of national and European resources.
9. Stop the bleeding of transfers of employees from small municipalities.
10. National Policy to address the demographic issue. Our countryside and islands are becoming deserted and measures must be taken FIRST!
11. «De-identification» of uses and interventions on the seashore and the beach.
12. The need for immediate redress of injustices against elected officials, improvement of the statutory position and removal of all unthinkable legislative provisions that make elected officials of local government «political staff of a lesser God».
    Until when will we keep saying the same thing, dear colleagues?»