Papadopoulos: The new KOK will be stricter for dangerous violations

THE Road Safety requires a change in the mentality of our society in terms of driving behavior, said the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, responsible for Transport, Mr. Michalis Papadopoulos in an interview with the newspaper “Today Press” and the journalist, Martha Lekkakou, emphasizing at the same time the significant progress that has been made in the fields of digitization and electrification.

Mr. Papadopoulos mentioned that a draft law for its sanctioning framework is being promoted COKE with the aim of toughening the penalties for dangerous offences, which account for the most serious accidents, such as drink-driving, running a red light and overtaking. As he pointed out:

“These behaviors must be eliminated because they take lives and cause serious injuries at great cost to society, but also to the economy.

At the same time, the car is “disadvantaged”, as plates will not be removed for specific offences, in which the responsibility rests with the driver. The whole family will not be punished by immobilizing the car if one member commits the offence.

The new draft law on the Code’s sanctioning framework is expected to be put into consultation before Christmas and all these provisions will take their final form after all the proposals have been assessed.”

The Deputy Minister of Transport noted that one of the first actions of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was to reduce the VAT on helmets to 13% and reiterated his proposal for zero VAT on helmets, which he said is being considered in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance.

Regarding electrification, Mr. Papadopoulos stated that the upward trend continues despite the unprecedented adversities, internationally, in the automotive industry and the registrations of purely electric vehicles have already exceeded the number for the whole of 2021.

“Based on the latest figures available, up to the third week of October there were 3,678 registrations of purely electric vehicles since the start of 2022, compared to 3,594 in the whole of 2021. So we have already surpassed the previous year and the upward trend continues. As a measure of comparison, I remind you that in 2019 there were only 404 classifications, so we are running at almost ten times the pace compared to three years ago,” said Mr. Papadopoulos.

Impressive, the Deputy Minister of Transport described, the response to the Ministry’s new digital services, based on the cooperation we have with the Ministry of Digital Governance. Specifically, he emphasized:

“The citizen can now have his driver’s license and identity card on his mobile phone, and since this summer, 60,000 data requests have been made to update the TIN in the process for the user to download the car license. Today, we are also studying the possibility of having the data for the KTEO and the insurance available electronically.

Impressive, however, is the response of citizens to the rest of the services we have already developed, which allow citizens to carry out a set of transactions and operations electronically, without having to queue up at the Regional Transport Directorates.

A typical example is the provisional driving licence, where we are now approaching half a million electronic versions from driving test passers. In particular, 477,587 temporary driving licenses have been issued to private individuals and professionals who passed the exams, and from the very next day they can print the temporary license from their computer and drive their car, without waiting four months for the diploma as was the case in the recent past.

In addition, 38,000 replacement and duplicate licenses have been issued online, 30,000 license renewals have been made online, and a further 14,610 vehicle licenses have been issued following theft or loss. Also, since the summer when the transfer process was integrated into the system, 8,500 vehicle transfer operations have already been done digitally.

These numbers translate into less bureaucracy, administrative cost savings in public administration and transparency.”

Asked about the “bet” of the Just Development Transition Program and the gradual lignitization in the prefecture of Kozani, Mr. Papadopoulos stated:

“We have to be honest with the citizens saying that the energy transformation is a one-way street. The issue is that the transition from the traditional model to the post-lignite era should be fair and the results of this effort should be practical and visible to the residents of the areas concerned by this development.

Lignite has been the lifeblood of Western Macedonia’s economy for half a century and continues to support it, especially after the rapid developments that occurred in the last year with the energy crisis.

The re-operation of the units is a guarantee for the country’s energy security and this is proven in practice during the current period, when the need to limit our dependence on natural gas has arisen.

The government has shown flexibility to deal with the crisis, without this meaning that we are deviating from the long-term goal which is the gradual change of the production model.

We have the resources, the strategy and the plan to turn de-lignitization into an opportunity to transform the local economy, ensuring better living conditions for the people of Western Macedonia.”

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