Parliament: The appointment of the new leadership of the Port Regulatory Authority by a majority

The competent opinion was expressed by a majority of the competent committee of the Parliament, for the suitability of the proposed by the Minister of Shipping and Island Policy, Giannis Plakiotakis, for the positions of the president, the vice-president and the members of the Ports Regulatory Authority.

They are Apostolos Papapostolou, Nikolaos Attaliotis, Panagiotis Agourogiannis, Panagiotis Koufos, Dionysios Polemis, Filippos Kambouris, Paraskeva Makridis, Petros Stavrou and Georgios Koumbarakis, who were approved by the respective positions of the , that of SYRIZA, the Movement for Change and the Greek Solution, while the deputies of the KKE and MERA25 declared “present”.

The government’s proposal is based on their merit, science and knowledge to respond to the diverse and difficult subject of the Ports Regulatory Authority, said the present Minister of Shipping, responding to the criticism of the deputies who expressed a negative opinion, with the ideological identification of the ruling party. The essence of the discussion is to see the qualifications of the specifics, which will be judged in practice, said Mr. Plakiotakis. Earlier, SYRIZA MP N. Santorinios had criticized the government for turning the regulatory authority from an independent authority into an advisory body to the minister, while his colleague Th. Dritsas had said that it was a problem for the minister that the nominees were ” all or almost all ONED executives “.

PASOK-Movement for Change MP Ch. Kastanidis said that the nominees are party choices and that they were associates of MPs, mayoral advisers, and placed by the government in various positions, before being placed in the RAL. KKE MP Diamanto Manolakou said that the Ports Regulatory Authority is a tool for overseeing the privatization of ports and is implementing Euro-EU port liberalization legislation. We disagree with the existence of the Authority, however for its composition we express ourselves with the “present” said Ms. Manolakou. I say well done in their CVs, but how can the president of RAL be independent when he was, and is, a man of ND? asked the MP of the Hellenic Solution, A. Mylonakis.

ND MP Evr. Stylianidis spoke in an intervention about an attempt to incriminate the political identity. Does the fact that they had the courage to engage with the public blame them? Mr. Stylianidis asked, emphasizing that “independence from the Constitution is presumed during the exercise of duties”.

Responding to the criticism, the Minister of Shipping said that a simple comparison of the biographies of the Regulatory Authority on SYRIZA, with the current one, is clear. You had reached the point of having two bank executives, a physicist, a former scientific associate of the Minister of Shipping who resigned, and took over as President of the Ports Regulatory Authority, said Mr. Plakiotakis, with Mr. Santorinios mentioning that this associate had a doctorate in ports. At the same time, Mr. Plakiotakis noted that any changes in the responsibilities of RAL were made to address overlaps with other authorities, such as that of the Competition Commission.

Finally, Mr. Plakiotakis referred to the positions of the MPs of the coalition, St. Keletsi, for the developments in the port of Alexandroupolis, and Chr. Boukorou, who opposed the partial concession of the port of Volos. At the moment, four international tenders are underway for the development of the country’s regional ports, said Mr. Plakiotakis: Three of them are already in their second phase. In the port of Kavala we have an announcement of the preferred contractor for the sub-concession of the specific commercial port. For the port of Alexandroupolis, the submission of binding offers and the announcement of the preferred investor will take place in July, while by the end of the year the transfer to the new contractor is expected to be completed. Regarding the port of Volos, Mr. Plakiotakis clarified that “obviously we will proceed with its development […] The concession procedures will run, as of course for the other regional ports “.