Time to split the ministry
Kathimerini has in this column repeatedly argued in favor of setting up an independent Environment Ministry by separating the existing department from the Public Works Ministry. The two ministries have different objectives, different priorities and different staff. You cannot have the same minister as the political chief at both ministries. International experience shows that the environment minister must be a renowned technocrat. There is not a single country where the Environment Ministry is part of the Public Works Ministry. Socialist opposition leader George Papandreou also shares this view and he repeated it in his interview with Kathimerini. Here is a chance for Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to highlight a point of convergence between Greece’s biggest parties – a convergence that is sorely missing on many other vital issues besetting the country.
