NIKOS BARDOUNIAS

The new Merchant Marine and Island Policy Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis has been appointed captain of a ship on the right course.

However, he must show good leadership as there are several fronts that remain open, some of which could prove tricky, such as the issue of ports and the entry of private investors through major investments.

The new minister will have to tackle this major issue within the context of the government’s policy for modernizing and developing Greek ports. There has already been significant progress on this matter, approaching the completion of negotiations between the state and port employees for their ownership status.

On this issue at end-2006, port workers and the government had a head-on collision that resulted in a two-month strike with a huge economic impact on the port of Piraeus and the reduction of its competitiveness.

The considerable steps taken toward the improvement of the financial results of the Piraeus Port Authority in the first nine months of 2007 are credited to the strategy of its management.

In coastal shipping, despite the positive steps taken, there are still several issues pending. They are: abolishing third-party levies that account for 30 percent of fares, the 3 percent primage on fares introduced by the PASOK government for subsidizing the so-called unpopular routes that New Democracy had promised to abolish, and the demand by coastal shipowners on the composition of crews for which they want European Union rules imposed. The merging of the Merchant Marine Ministry with that of the Aegean and Island Policy brings to the fore the issue of coastal shipping’s proper servicing of small islands. The new ministry will also make moves toward attracting young people to professions of the sea and modernizing maritime education. There are other open issues in the EU as well, as several decisions from the European Commission go against the interests of Greek shipowners and the country itself, for which shipping is a pillar boosting the economy with more than –14 billion per year in foreign currency.