The Annual Regular Conference of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece opened in Volos on Monday, November 21, with the central message: Strong Local Government – Better Greece.
Today, Tuesday, November 22, the mayor of Kythira, Efstratios Charhalakis, will take the floor at the conference, where he will address the problems faced by island municipalities, which account for 21% of the country's municipalities.
Over 1,000 elected officials are expected to attend the three-day conference.
Papastergiou: Resources for municipal needs have increased
In his speech on the first day of the conference, the president of KEDE, Dimitris Papastergiou, referred to the achievements of his administration, speaking of «fair and equal treatment of all municipalities.» Mr. Papastergiou spoke of «good governance,» which, operating «with transparency and moderation,» managed to increase municipal resources by 31% during the three-year period 20220-22.
The major outstanding issues concerning municipalities
The president of KEDE then listed all the issues that remain open and await resolution. Specifically, he mentioned:
- Funding for DEYAs remained unclaimed. With an additional energy cost of around 100 million, we haven't gotten anything yet. We can't take it anymore. Today we are waiting for good news. Because beyond good intentions, in the end, we are ALL judged by our effectiveness.
- Lifeguard coverage. An additional €20 million is being sought to find the instigator and the «payer» of this «malpractice,» which has been going on for the second consecutive year and must be stopped.
- Cleaning and heating costs in schools. Several tens of millions of euros are circulating in the corridors of the ministries, but they have not yet reached us, just as the platform that needs to be created for us to declare the additional heating costs is still pending.
- TPD loans. With energy prices still very high and inflation hitting us all, we expect at least something that does not involve fiscal costs. The freezing of municipal loan installments for 2023 in escrow accounts.
- Hotel accommodation tax: All over the world, there is a tax we pay to hotels called city tax. How did a city tax become a tax that goes to the state... I don't understand!!! We clearly demand that hotels and AirBnb pay accommodation tax to municipalities!
- Withheld funds: KEDE continues to raise the issue of returning the withheld institutional resources of local government. The President of KEDE pointed out that “this is municipal money, we will not give it up, we will claim it back.».
