Fiasco Turkaegean: Ministry officials empty Adonis Georgiades

With a statement of condemnation the Unified Association of Employees of the Ministry of Commerce leaves clear accusations against Adonis Georgiades on the case of the Turkaegean trademark.

Workers say it is a matter of communication Games of the Minister and make it clear that the Ministry's Flag Service has no responsibility for what happened as it «had no instructions».

Finally, they talk about trying to shift the responsibility onto the backs of her colleagues.

The announcement reads as follows:

After the situation that has been created in our area, as a result of the accumulated problems (poor hygiene and safety conditions of the building, and serious staff shortages resulting in increased workload for employees) and we have repeatedly highlighted and highlighted in multiple announcements and in our recent mobilizations, came the icing on the cake:

On the instruction of the Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiades, the Secretary General of Commerce and Consumer Protection Sotiris Anagnostopoulos ordered the conduct of an Administrative Inquiry for the investigation and the establishment of disciplinary offences by employees of the former Signs Department of the General Secretariat of Commerce of the Ministry of Development and Investments, concerning the registration of the trademark “Turkaegean” with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and other national and international Intellectual Property Offices.

For the information of anyone who does not know or pretends not to know, we must point out that the The Trademark Office of our Ministry is not involved in any way as it has no statutory authority to register the above trademark, Since the European Trademark Office (EUIPO) is responsible for checking and registering the European Trademark, it does not account to the Member States for which trademarks have been filed and whether they have been accepted.

In the context of a cooperation programme between the Signal Office and the European Office concerned, the official participating in this programme shall, notes the English meaning of the Greek words (whether written in Greek or Latin characters) which appear in the marks filed at the European Office, without having the power to check the validity of the registration of the European trade mark. In this particular mark, the word was not a Greek word or even a Greek expression written in Latin characters, so there was no need to note the English translation of the word. Therefore there was no involvement, one might think, of the Trade Marks Office.

All the rest is reproduced for communication purposes so as to shift any political responsibility onto the shoulders of colleagues. The bottom line is that even in the European Office Greek seconded colleagues were not involved in any way in the examination and registration of the above mark.

Specifically, one (1) examiner is responsible for examining the application and in this particular case, as we have been informed, was an official from another European country, who accepted the application. After the publication of the application, it was possible to file an opposition against the examiner's decision, but this action was not within the duties of the Trade Marks Division as described in the then Ministry of Development & Investment's Statute, according to the Decree 147/2017 (article 57).

In any case, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) enjoys legal administrative and financial autonomy and is exclusively responsible for the control and registration of European trademarks. The employees of the Trademark Office have never received clear and specific instructions from the political leadership of our Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or any other authority responsible for any trademark investigation at the international level, with specific reference to indications of particular national interest.

As always, in this case, an employee must be the scapegoat.

Instead of focusing on dealing with the situation as it is, taking any political responsibility and supporting national interests in the best way possible, let alone when the issue was made public by November 2021, the government is now looking for punishments for non-existent errors and omissions of public officials.

It is the natural consequence of the degradation of public services and the importance of the trademark sector, which instead of using it for the promotion of the country and the national economy, preferred to hand it over to private interests.

WE CALL ON THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP:

-IMMEDIATELY RECALL THE LAW

-TO ASSUME ITS POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY

WE WARN YOU NOT TO GO DOWN THE ROAD OF SMEAR AND DEFAMATION OF THE WORKERS BECAUSE THEY WILL FIND US ALL AGAINST EACH OTHER.

WE DECLARE THAT THE UNION WILL MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO DEFEND THE WORKERS FROM ANY UNACCEPTABLE AND UNJUST ATTACK

Georgiades: The official is to blame

Earlier, speaking on Greek radio's First Programme, Development Minister Adonis Georgiades, although he apologized, defended the narrative of the official's responsibility, which he repeated several times.

«The new thing is that it has branded the «Turkaegean» brand. Wrong. I do not say good. I make it clear and will do everything to prevent it. I personally or my secretary general, not even a director of the Ministry of Development was unfortunately not informed by the one and only employee who received the brand», he stressed.

SYRIZA: Georgiades is incompetent

SYRIZA has lashed out against the Minister, calling him incompetent.

The new announcement in detail

The hypocritical Development Minister Adonis Georgiades is now doubly exposed. Until yesterday we knew that under his nose the «TurkAegean» - «Turkish Aegean» was handed over to Turkey without doing anything at all.

Today the officials of the Ministry of Development denounce him that not only is he politically responsible, but that he has not even given any instructions to act and try to prevent this development.

Mr Georgiades went from being a «super patriot» to an incompetent and dangerous Minister who paved the way for Ankara to be handed the name «TurkAegean» - «Turkish Aegean».

Cheap in bran and expensive in flour, as historically proven for

But because he is stuck in his chair, we would expect Mr Mitsotakis to do the right thing and immediately remove him from the government. However, Mr Mitsotakis, in bondage to Mr Georgiades, is backing him because he is afraid of him and is also passing the blame on to the officials.

He thus assumes political responsibility for the handling of the Minister of Development, the fiasco that followed and its consequences.