ECONOMY

New national plan seen delaying waste management projects

The decision by the Production Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Ministry to draft a new national plan, put up for consultation last week, is causing worries that a number of scheduled solid waste management projects will not start on time, thus putting at risk their funding by the new European Union-subsidized community support framework.

The completion of the planning at national, regional and local levels and the drafting of the environmental studies are necessary conditions for the inclusion of the projects in the new subsidy framework that started in 2014 and is set to run to 2020.

The issue will be the focus of discussions that Alternate Environment Minister Yiannis Tsironis has lined up for this week with representatives from the European Commission’s competent directorate general due in Athens in the context of the meeting of the monitoring committees. Their work starts on Friday, starting with the region of Epirus, and will last until July 3.

That process in effect launches the detailing of the new support framework’s regional programs so that the assessment criteria can be approved and the first tenders for the projects can begin. Discussions will also focus on the closure of the previous support program (2007-13), which runs until the end of this year, having received a two-year extension. Projects in the environment domain have lagged considerably in the previous program, as the fund absorption rate that Greece has achieved to date does not exceed 70 percent.

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