The Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) submitted its positions on the sustainability, the carrying capacity of tourism infrastructure and resilience policies in the island region to the Parliament. The debate took place on 24 February 2026, during the meeting of the Subcommittee on Island Regions, at the initiative of the Chairman of the Committee and Member of Parliament for the Dodecanese, Mr.
The position of E. Harhalakis
The President of KEDE was represented at the meeting by the Mayor of Kythera and President of the Islands and Cohesion Policy Committee, Mr. Efstratios Harhalakis. During his presentation:
- He presented the Union's proposals for the improvement of island infrastructure, with emphasis on the new conditions created by the expansion of tourism and the climate crisis.
- He stressed the need for specific policies that will put into practice the constitutional imperative of insularity.
- He shared relevant data from the European experience, in his capacity as a member of the National Delegation to the Committee of the Regions.
The intervention of Mr Koukas
For his part, Mr.Konstantinos Koukas, member of the Supervisory Board of the KEDE and Vice President of the Congress of Local Authorities of the Council of Europe, focused on the institutional dimension of the issue:
- He pointed out that insularity is directly linked to the ability of the state to ensure the equal functioning of institutions, despite geographical discontinuity.
- He described carrying capacity not only as an environmental quantity, but also as an «indicator of the quality of democracy».
- He called for the opportunity of the new Local Government Code to be used to incorporate island issues.
The position of the President of KEDE
In the context of the discussion, the standing position of the President of the KEDE, Mr. Lazaros Kyrizoglou, was recorded, who stresses that insularity must be a central axis of national planning. According to Mr. Kyrizoglou, the State must provide stable resources and institutional tools to island municipalities in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of local communities, the resilience of infrastructure and the equal treatment of citizens.
