A working meeting of the Board of the Network of Municipalities of the Attica Islands with the new municipal authorities of Poros, Trizinia-Methana and Agistri, was held yesterday, November 7, at the offices of the Network, in Piraeus.
The President of the Board of Directors of the Network of Municipalities of the Attica Islands and Mayor of Kythera-Antikythera, κ. Efstratios Harhalakis in the presence of the President of the Management Committee of the local LEADER programme κ. Mr. Yannis Zorba Mayor of Aegina and the Network Manager Mr. Marini Beretsou as well as the executives of the Network of Cooperation of Municipalities of the Attica Islands, welcomed the newly elected Mayors of Poros Mr. Koutouzi Georgios, Troizinia-Methana Mr. Mouyo Anastasios and Agistri Mr. Anastasiou Dimitrios. The meeting was also attended by the Head of the Department of Technical Support for Island Municipalities Mr. Veioglu Stavros, who praised the excellent cooperation with the Network of Municipalities of the Attica Islands.
The programme of the meeting was as follows:
- Presentation of the Attica Islands Network and the upcoming Programming.
- Information about the Local CLLD LEADER Programme and the New Programming Period, Ms. Christina Kalatha, Head of Development Programmes Directorate/Local Programme Coordinator CLLD/LEADER.
- Establishment and operation of the Technical Service within the Network of Municipalities of the Attica Islands, κ. Dimitrios Bogiatzis, Head of the Technical Service of the Attica Islands Network.
- The Programme Agreements between Municipalities and the Network, κ. Panagiotis Mouzakiotis, Technical Service Executive of the Network of the Attica Islands.
- Presentation of the Network's financial data, Ms. Ekaterini Fotaki, Head of the Financial Service of the Attica Islands Network.
Specifically, a detailed presentation of the full range of the Network's activities was made, both for the implementation of the CLLD/LEADER T.P. in the 8 Municipalities of the Network and for the support of the Municipalities of the Regional Unit of the Attica Islands, through the Technical Service of the Network.
In detail, the Municipal Authorities were informed about the Local Programme for the Attica Islands for the 2014-2020 programming period, which was approved with a Public Expenditure of 7.400.000€ (EAFRD: 5.050.000€ and ERDF: 2.350.000€) and after overcommitment the Public Expenditure reached 13.471.247,93€ (EAFRD: 8.889.912,98€€ and ERDF: 4.581.334,95€) for a population of 74.651 people, in an area of about 875km2 and is currently being implemented. At the same time, and for the participation in the Local Development Strategies programme of the CAP 2023-2027, following the evaluation of proposals submitted to the EAD EAFRD and the submission of a proposal for the selection of local development strategies with local community initiative (TapTok), of the «Fisheries, Aquaculture & Marine 2021 - 2027» programme.
They also referred to the Programmatic Agreements concluded with its member municipalities, concerning the preparation of studies and the maturation of public works, but also the general support of their Technical Services. The culmination of the Network's efforts is the conclusion of a Programme Contract with the Municipality of Poros, which after the approval of the Court of Auditors, fully utilizes the possibilities offered by the provisions of Articles 12 & 44 of Law 4412/2016, 4 of Law 4674/2020 and 9 of Law 4782/2021, and is the first Programme Contract that concerns multi-year support of numerous current and future projects of the Municipality. Thus, the Technical Service of the Municipality of Poros now operates primarily through the assignment of staff from the Network.
In addition, reference was made to the project maturation actions through the resources of the Attica Regional Development Programme, where important studies were completed for the 8 municipalities of the Attica Islands Municipality, which are implemented through Public Contracts and aim at the inclusion of projects in financial instruments.
Finally, the meeting discussed issues of strengthening the development role of local authorities, through the better use of tools and mechanisms for local development. The issue of the investment of development agencies in know-how and human resources was the core of the above productive discussion, as the Network's multifaceted activity to strengthen the local economy will continue unabated in view of the new programming period.
