The support of the small mountainous municipalities of the country in the meeting of Mitsotakis with 33 mayors

The course of the implementation of the programs that are already running for the small mountainous Municipalities of the country, the needs and problems they face, as well as the development prospects of these areas, were discussed in the meeting of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the 33 Mayors of the Mountainous Municipalities Network. “The public of the Mountaineers”, which took place at noon at the Maximos Palace.

At the meeting was presented their funding, totaling 375 million euros received by these municipalities (with a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants) from the Ministry of Interior (243.36 million euros) and programs of other Ministries (125.6 million. euros from NSRF, 6.05 million from Green Fund and 367 thousand euros from RDP Rural Development).

“The purpose of today’s meeting is more to hear your concerns, your concerns and to be able to map a course of a more stable cooperation, which will be able to turn possible disadvantages of mountainous Greece into our comparative advantages,” he stressed at the beginning. During the meeting, the Prime Minister, who recorded the positions of the Mayors, acknowledged the difficulties they face and stressed the possibilities for the development of their areas.

“We are a government that emphasizes the deeds and not the words and we want to finally make an account of the result and not of rhetorical ability”, stressed at the end of the meeting Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who after referring in detail to each issue raised, proposed inter-municipal cooperation for the implementation of the development tools available to the Municipalities, even with the utilization of Integrated Spatial Investment plans, such as the one implemented by the Benou Committee in Northern Evia.

At the same time, the Prime Minister announced the creation of a very small working group, which within 6 months will prepare a master plan for mountainous Greece, which will be a road map usable by all municipalities.

Implementation of programs and development dynamics

During the two hours that the meeting lasted, out of the 33 Mayors who participated, 21 spoke, expressing their gratitude to the government for the cooperation that exists with the ministries and the immediate response and support to the issues they face.

At the same time, the Mayors referred to ways to stimulate and enhance the tourism product to cover all four seasons of the year, as well as the development potential of these areas that can attract, as permanent residents, even “digital nomads” and lead many to return to work in their place of origin.

Among the issues to be resolved raised by the heads of the mountainous municipalities of the country were the understaffing of their services, the lack of machinery to meet the needs of the mountainous terrain, the studies and preparation of projects, the road construction in their internal networks, the operation schools and health centers, 5G network coverage, the existence of even one bank branch at their headquarters, Renewable Energy Sources and energy costs, the decoupling of their funding from the population criterion and its connection with the They also occupy the institution of “mountainousness” with a legal framework that will separate the mountainous from the island municipalities.

“What is very important, apart from the funding and the numbers that we will present, is that all this includes your great personal interest. And as for all of us in the government, the love for the mountainous Municipalities of the country, because we do not stand out Large or small Municipalities We see everywhere citizens, opportunities for our country to go further.I will try to run the presentation as fast as I can.The big picture shows that there are various financial tools for the first time in many years at our disposal. A total of 375 million euros are available for various interventions from regular and extraordinary funding or development tools of various Ministries “, stressed the Deputy Minister of Interior, Stelios Petsas.

“We, the small mountainous Municipalities, who may see us today in costume but wear a work uniform in our Municipalities, have communication with your Ministers and very good communication. And to tell the truth, several projects which due to understaffing we may not be able to But I would like to share my personal experience, therefore, that a few months ago we had sent a letter, as the Committee of Mountain Municipalities of Greece, to Mr. Gerapetritis, to Mr. Skertsos, to Mr. Kontogeorgis, addressed to you and Prime Minister, where we say that ‘indeed the problems of small mountain municipalities are not the problems of large municipalities on a small scale. They want another approach, they want a mountain policy.’ And we called, if possible, to have this meeting. I am therefore surprised to see this beautiful meeting with the presence of so many Ministers and in fact the competent Ministers on the issues concerning the mountainous Municipalities. of mountains is mainly the primary sector and we try to build a tourism product which will be a second stable pillar, so that these communities can live and develop “, noted the Mayor of Anogia and President of the Network of Mountain Municipalities” To audience of the Mountaineers “, Socrates Kefalogiannis.

The Minister of Environment and Energy, Costas Skrekas, the Minister of Rural Development and Food, George Georgantas, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, George Amyras, and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, Michadis, also spoke on the issues raised by the Mayors. Also present from the government were the Minister of State Akis Skertsos, the Deputy Minister of Development and Investment Giannis Tsakiris, the Deputy Minister of Digital Government, the Deputy Minister for Special Digital Projects and the Land Registry Minister Thodoris Libyanos, the Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs, by Natural Disasters Christos Triantopoulos and the Secretary General of Internal Policy Coordination Thanasis Kontogeorgis.

The meeting was attended by the mayors of Thermos Spyros Constantaras, Epidaurus Tasos Chronis, South Kynouria Charalambos Lysikatos, Georgiou Karaiskakis Pericles Migdos, Central Tzoumerkas Christos Hassiakos, Erymanos , Paranestiou Anastasios Kayaoglou, Agrafa Alexandros Kardambikis, Viannou Minas Stavrakakis, Filiates Spyros Pappas, Northern Tzoumerkas Yiannis Sentelis, Dodonis Christos Dakaletsis, Zagoriou, Zagoriou , Nestoriou Christos Gosliopoulos, Velventou Manolis Stergiou, Nemeas Konstantinos Frousios, Lassithi Plateau Giannis Stefanakis, Zagoras – Mouresiou Panagiotis Koutsaftis, West Mani Dimitris Giannouras, Agiou Vassiratis M Kefalogiannis, Prespa Panagiotis Paschalidis, Kantanou – Selinou Antonis Perrakis and Sfakion Manousos Chiotakis.

The introductory position of the Prime Minister is as follows:

I came to listen to the messages you bring from our small mountainous Municipalities. Of course we call you small because of size and population, but you are too big, if one thinks about your importance, your social cohesion and of course the revitalization of the Region.

Before I was elected Prime Minister, I had expressed the view that our country should have a strategy for the mountainous countryside, which of course will be based and will have the main pillar of cooperation the representatives of our mountainous municipalities. And the purpose of today’s meeting is more to hear your concerns, your concerns – that is why we have here an important representation from the Council of Ministers – and to be able to map a course of a more stable cooperation that can turn possible disadvantages of mountainous Greece into our comparative advantages.

Stelios Petsas will then have the opportunity to speak and present to you in greater detail the projects that are being launched. Obviously, each of you knows your own, but you may not know the full extent of the projects that are launched in mountainous Greece through the “Tritsis” Program.

They are very important interventions – as at least I had the opportunity to run them – that improve critical infrastructure: sewerage networks, sewage treatment, many important rural road projects, interventions related to the quality of our schools, sports initiatives regarding sports infrastructure, investments related to solidarity, establishment of social grocery stores. I saw with great interest that several of the participating Municipalities have moved in this direction.

And of course a special care for our tourism. I firmly believe that the next challenge and the next great opportunity for our country is mountain tourism, the extension of the tourist season throughout the 12 months. We have corners of Greece that those who know them remain speechless and everyone wants to return. Many Municipalities participating in our meeting today have moved in this direction.

However, in order to develop our tourism product in an organized way and to protect our natural environment, which is now an inviolable term for any sustainable development initiative, we need better cooperation and better coordination.

I believe that we recognize the organizational and administrative difficulties of small mountain municipalities. And I want to congratulate you from the bottom of my heart because I know that it is not easy, under these conditions, with frequent staffing problems, to run your municipalities and to be able to meet the expectations of your citizens.

That is why I am ready to discuss and intervene in the institutional framework, so that we can in an organized way provide services that are useful to you horizontally, such as possibly a new waste management framework for small mountainous and island local authorities, which is tailored to your specific needs, with emphasis on biowaste management, wastewater management, proper organic waste treatment. And soon the Ministry of Environment and Energy will be ready to make announcements in this direction.

I ask you, therefore, not to limit this discussion to the search for resources. There are important resources available, but to think that we can use these resources in a productive way and turn them into projects that will be very useful, so that our small mountain municipalities can become real protagonists of the changing Greece .

Let me close this brief introduction – and I will come back during the discussion and at the end, trying to codify the conclusions from this meeting – by reiterating how much I firmly believe in myself in the need for rural support. And as a person who loves the mountain very much, I have a special reason, a special personal interest to put into action ideas and plans that I had a long time ago about how we can support the mountain municipalities.

Now I think we have the capacity, the mood, the resources and the framework for cooperation to be able to do such political acts.