It was voted, by majority, by its competent Committee Parliament the bill of Ministry of Development for accuracyentitled “Provisions to strengthen consumer protection, development and orderly functioning of the market, regulations to support businesses affected by disasters”.

Only the ND was in favor of his principle, while all the Opposition parties, except the KKE which voted against, SYRIZA, PASOK-KINAL, Hellenic Solution, New Left, NIKI, Spartans and Pleussi Eleftherias reserved their position in the debate and voting in the Plenary which will be held next Thursday, May 23.

Earlier, competent extra-parliamentary bodies had been invited to the Committee. who submitted opinions, objections and proposals emphasizing the need for further improvement changes.

Particularly:

Giorgos Thanopoulos, coordinator of the Documentation Research and Analysis Unit of the GESEBE Institute, spoke of “fast track consultation procedures”, he called “problematic the articles of the bill dealing with accuracy”, arguing that “they do not help to deal with accuracy and unfair business practices”.

At the same time, he proposed, among other things, “further measures to strengthen the Competition Commission to make market controls more effective and to reduce VAT for small and medium-sized businesses”, while noting that “the measures for businesses affected by natural disasters are far from being become sustainable”.

Charalambos Arachovas, coordinator of the Economic Analysis Department of the Trade and Services Institute of the Greek Confederation of Trade Associations, expressed his disagreement with the bill arguing that “it does not work to address the distortions that exist in the market for unfair competition and misleading discounts” .

As he said, “uniform and clear rules for product prices must be applied”, he underlined that “the fear of professional organizations is that they will not be able to protect their members” and expressed his objection to “removing controls from management development of the Regions”.

Antonios Makris, president of the Business and Retail Association of Greece, (SELPE) expressed his strong skepticism about the effectiveness of the provisions of the bill, noting, among other things, that “it does not include substantial arrangements that will help to effectively control the market from the illegal competition”.

Georgia Athanasopoulou, general secretary of the Union of Employees of the Ministry of Commerce, spoke of “stitching provisions that strengthen business groups” and of a bill that “does not concern the essential protection of the consumer”.

“It is not aimed at strengthening consumer protection and we are under no illusions about where market controls will lead,” he noted.

Nikolaos Kouyoumtzis. Second Vice-President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, focused on the provisions for the completion of investment procedures, he noted that “the bureaucracy has now become electronic”, while he emphasized the accessibility of small and medium enterprises to their financing, underlining that “the small investor finds serious obstacles ahead as 9 out of 10 micro-enterprises never reach the counter of banks, while 90% are excluded from any lending”.

“According to Eurostat, we are last in the EU in consumer purchasing power. Our firm position is that targeted policies must be implemented that will lead to the reduction of prices on the shelves, controls on the market must be intensified because the party of the multinationals continues and whatever measures are taken do not discourage them, that is why they must be braver” , he underlined.

Giorgos Lehouritis, president of INKA, expressed his disagreement with the bill which, as he said, “does not concern the strengthening of consumer protection and is not in the right direction and must be withdrawn in order to have an adequate public consultation”.

As he said, “DIMEA, which is still understaffed, will not be able to respond to the increased tasks, while at the same time all the regional directorates, which have done a good job until today, are rejected by the audit mechanisms.”

“We propose clear logic, a clear framework, with an active role of the Consumer Commission and not piecemeal movements”, he emphasized.

“The market expects more support and action for small and medium-sized businesses, that’s why we are asking for further improvements,” Pavlos Ravanis, president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, pointed out for his part, and added that “the provisions of the bill could improve the business environment” , while he proposed to increase from one to two years, the validity procedure of the investment permits.

Apostolos Ontopoulos, president of the Volos Chamber of Commerce, focused on the provisions regarding the support of businesses affected by natural disasters, requesting, among other things, “targeted arrangements that will concern all businesses that have suffered damage not only from bad weather” Daniel”, but also in the cases of the areas that suffered damage from September to December, reinstatement of the 120 installments, a special subsidized work program, tax incentives and a reduction in VAT”.

Giorgos Papamanolis-Dozos, president of the Board of Directors of the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce, appeared positive “in the provisions of the bill that aim to reduce prices and strengthen consumer protection”, noting that the consumer must be aware of the original price of the product to make the comparison with the final price, while he described the “serious effort to strengthen the businesses affected by the bad weather “Daniel”.

His opposition to the bill was expressed by Giorgos Melissaris, legal advisor of the Union of Consumer Workers of Greece, arguing that it “takes a step back in dealing with the problems of consumer protection against the misleading and unfair practices of businesses” and stressed the need for clearer and a more transparent framework, as well as stricter sanctions for businesses that violate the law, with their criminal treatment, in addition to the imposition of fines.

Vasiliki Bolou, deputy of the Consumer Ombudsman, spoke of “the right step”, stressing that “the adoption of measures was imperative for the orderly operation of the market, the reduction of prices, the suppression of profiteering and the protection of the consumer”.

At the same time, he noted that “DIMEA, which is understaffed, should be reinforced with staff in order to be able to act effectively in favor of consumers”.

For his part, Antonios Grigoropoulos, president of the Panhellenic Association of Radio Station Owners of Greece, emphasized the need for clarification of the provisions concerning the spectrum of frequencies in border areas, in order to determine exactly which prefectures it concerns.

The President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sofia Kounenaki, spoke about a bill moving in the right direction, noting at the same time that it would be appropriate to codify all the provisions of the laws so that there is a clear framework, while she called transparency in the criteria and in the evaluation of the rapporteurs of the Competition Commission.