The examination of requests submitted by municipalities throughout the country to exempt organizations and businesses from the repeal has recently begun at the Ministry of the Interior.

In Patras and Kalavryta, from Wednesday 29 November, they have reason to smile, as the Deputy Minister of the Interior Theodoros Livanios signed the decision to exempt the Public Beneficial Enterprise of the Municipality of Patras “Carnival of Patras” and the Municipal Museum of the Kalavrita Holocaust.

In total, the interior ministry accepted only 16 requests from the approximately 500 submitted by the municipalities of the whole country. Requests for exemption have been submitted by the Municipalities of Patreon, Aegialia, Kalavryta, and Western Achaia, requesting that their organizations and companies be exempted from the abolition and an independent solution.

With a new law that came into force at the beginning of October, the organizations and businesses of the municipalities of the whole country are headed for abolition from January 1. This means that the workers and the services they produce will be absorbed by the municipalities. The aim of the bill is to make better management of financial resources and better utilization of human resources. However, with this development, the municipalities of the country reacted as they estimate that the services and the work produced will be degraded and mainly the benefiting citizens will suffer.

However, after pressure exerted by the mayors through the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece, the Ministry of the Interior left open a “window” for the exemption of certain organizations only if they produce demonstrably specialized work. Within November the four municipalities of Achaia submitted requests and on November 29 the decision was announced that exempts only 2 organizations of Achaia.

The Kalavrita Holocaust Museum will remain open under the current regime

The municipalities’ services had recommended that the operation of the organizations should continue. For obvious reasons, both the Patras Carnival and the Kalavryti Holocaust Museum offer specialized services and produce widely recognized work, so the ministry’s objections have been overcome and they will continue to operate.

The Municipality of Patreon, commenting on the decision to abolish the Organizations, noted that the goal is to “make the municipalities and regions more hostile towards the people and their needs. In particular, the abolition of Legal Entities with the transfer of their responsibilities to the municipalities, does not ensure the uninterrupted operation of these Services, as well as the continuity of employees in these Services, since it is not accompanied by the required funding and adequate staffing in human resources”. At the same time, the Municipality declares that it will continue to fight to offer citizens the services they need in all sectors, among which is culture and social support, while ensuring the rights of workers.

The Ministry of the Interior in the decision it issued did not give a clear answer about what will happen to the rest of the organizations. It seems, however, that those organizations whose application for exemption was not approved will hardly escape the repeal. Now, it remains to finalize the new data for the municipalities and from there to find the new mode of operation and production of services for the items we remind you that in total nine exemption requests were submitted by Achaia.

The Municipality of Patreon, in addition to the Carnival, has requested the exemption from the abolition of the Social and Cultural Organization. The Municipality of Aegialia wanted the Legal Entity “Culture, Education, Sports and Social Protection of the Municipality of Aegialia” and DIKEPA to be excluded from the application of the law. The Municipality of Western Achaia had requested the exemption of the Public Benefit Enterprise and the Local Development Organization. While the Municipality of Kalavryta had requested, in addition to the Museum, to exclude the “Cave of Kastria Lakes” business as well. Finally, the Municipality of Erymanthos had in previous years a Municipal Public Benefit Enterprise, but it had already started the procedures for its dissolution.