Government level meeting on the reconstruction process of Thessaly took place today at noon, at the Karditsa Town Hall.

At the meeting, all the issues related to the reconstruction program of Thessaly were discussed. After the meeting, the political leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will hold a series of meetings with regional agencies and will visit until Sunday to areas, primary sector businesses and cooperatives that have been affected by the floods.

The meeting was attended by the Ministers of Environment & Energy Theodoros Skylakakis, Rural Development & Food Lefteris Avgenakis, Deputy Minister of the Interior Theodoros Livanios, Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis & Civil Protection Christos Triantopoulos, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Nikos Tachiaos, General Secretaries of Spatial Planning & Urban Environment Efthimios Bakoyannis and of Agricultural Development & Food Giorgos Stratakos and the president of ELGA Andreas Lykourentzos. The regional governor of Thessaly Dimitris Kouretas, deputy regional governors, the newly elected mayors of Thessaly, representatives of the Chambers, and representatives of ETHEAS and cooperative organizations were also invited and attended.

Th.Skylakakis: A matter of life for Thessaly, the proper management of water

The Minister of Energy and Environment Theodore Skylakakis described the proper management of water as a matter of life for Thessaly, announcing that within the next 15 days, the regulation that will provide for the establishment of the Unified Water Management Agency will be put up for consultation and immediately after that it will come to the Volis for voting. for Thessaly. “We have to look again from scratch, the issue of water management, because without water this place cannot progress. Proper water management is a matter of life for Thessaly. And this is the responsibility of all of us,” he said characteristically.

He noted that dealing with unprecedented weather phenomena as a consequence of the climate crisis requires consents. “We need to get over ourselves because we don’t know how, when and with what intensity these phenomena will repeat,” he said and added: “The climate crisis is a new reality about which, globally, we have little knowledge.” He emphasized that in addition to the concept of protection, we must also adopt the concept of resilience, pointing out that the Ministry of Energy and Environment will do so with the new building regulation, “but this must be included in every activity of all citizens”.

At the same time, he said that together with the general secretary of the ministry, Thymios Bakoyannis, they have to deal with issues such as:

The relocation of residents from affected areas.

  • The spatial planning study of Palamas, which the ministry will finance.
  • The amendment of the regional spatial plan, which will also be undertaken by the Ministry of Energy and Environment.

He also announced that:

The Municipality of Karditsa will normally join the Recovery Fund in terms of renovations (he had missed the deadlines due to the floods). Together with the other municipalities of Thessaly, 3.6 million euros will be absorbed for renovations from the Recovery Fund

With legislation that will be implemented immediately, the Central Building Service will be given the possibility to help local agencies to unblock building permits

Fixed PPC failure with power outages on some farms. Reconnections have already started yesterday in 301 cases where the electricity supply was cut off due to debts. As far as the debts are concerned, he said that in cooperation with the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection & Climate Crisis Christos Triandopoulos there will be a legislative initiative for interest-free settlement of the specific debts.

Finally, Thodoros Skylakakis announced that the ministry’s crews have recorded the disasters in the urban fabric throughout Thessaly and now, without additional procedure, it is up to the municipalities of the region to absorb the 12.6 million euros that have been committed for this purpose.

L. Avgenakis: The government will continue to support Thessaly

The Minister of Agricultural Development & Food, Lefteris Avgenakis, pointed out that the subject of the meeting is “all the issues concerning the reconstruction program of Thessaly” and stressed that “the government will continue to support Thessaly and every production unit, either in the primary sector, or in processing.

He said that the government has allocated to date, through all the ministries involved, resources approaching half a billion for the support and rehabilitation of the region, “while the next day is being organized with rapid steps”.

“The total cost of restoring the damages and the projects that will guarantee a safe tomorrow in Thessaly, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has stated, will exceed 3 billion euros. These are projects that concern the whole range of actions, from the central government to the municipalities and the Region. Projects that will be done based on the study of the Dutch company HVA International – which has vast experience in flood protection projects and is recognized worldwide – and which will have a sequence as they will be connected to each other and one will be supportive of the other” noted the Mr. Avgenakis and announced that “for this reason, by the decision of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a rehabilitation and reconstruction coordinator has been appointed for the further monitoring and coordination of the projects and actions of the Thessaly support and rehabilitation plan, at the General Secretariat for Natural Disaster Recovery and State Aid of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection”.

As Mr. Avgenakis pointed out, immediately after the floods, the government moved “quickly” on three levels:

“First, to prevent the health crisis. I remind you that hundreds of thousands of dead animals constituted an unprecedented health risk which we prevented through hard and painstaking work done by the relevant ministries in cooperation with the Region. The work was coordinated by the head of the Ministry of AAT Giorgos Stratakos and the former deputy governor of Agrotiko Apostolos Bilis.

Secondly, we made sure that those affected felt the support of the State. More than 450 million euros have been allocated by the co-competent ministries.

Third, we are taking a series of measures that will lead to the reconstruction of Thessaly. The development measures concern the entire government policy”.

He then briefly referred to the actions of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food:

“Advances of 150 million euros have already been paid for crop production and livestock compensation. The 16.5 for livestock was paid just 18 days after the declaration deadline and the 107.5 25 days after that. In addition, on December 21, 26 million euros were paid to those affected.

The total amount of compensation that ELGA will pay is estimated to exceed 260 million euros, an amount that the government has secured.

At the same time, 2.5 million euros have been secured for the fishermen of the area, as a loss of income and 15.8 million euros from the Agricultural Reserve of 2023, to be given to those producers (pig farmers, poultry farmers, producers of aromatic plants, etc. ) had no obligation, according to the ELGA regulation, to be insured. We will have a separate meeting with this group of producers tomorrow.

It is recalled that a timetable has already been announced for the implementation of a special measure through the RDP to support producers in the Paracarlian regions. The Technical Bulletin of the project has been completed. The work of the Consultant has been assigned to Mr. Dimitris Sofologia – as you know, he is a fellow resident of yours who is the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Agriculturalists – and he is expected to soon complete the annex to the Technical Bulletin with the aid prices. Then the Technical Bulletin will be sent to the European Commission for the relevant consultation and approval. As we have already announced, the participation of those affected in this measure will be done through the IACS 2024 crop declaration, without requiring the submission of a separate file of supporting documents.

I note that an echelon of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will visit the Parakarlian villages.

Potential beneficiaries are those who declare the flooded areas to the IACS, provided that they have also submitted an IACS declaration in 2023.

The call for the €100 million denitrification program for the affected areas has already been pre-published. An extension will be given to the beneficiaries of the second call for the denitrification measure of the previous programming period, amounting to 50 million euros. In other words, a total of 150 million euros will be given for the new denitrification measure. A series of measures are also in the implementation phase, such as 5.2 of the PAA, amounting to 45 million euros, which concerns the replacement of the lost livestock and the reconstruction of the stable facilities.

The announcement is expected to be published next week. Immediately after that, the submission of applications by those interested will follow on a digital platform that is already ready.”

Th. Livanios: There is no day to waste

For his part, Deputy Interior Minister Theodoros Livanios emphasized that alreadythe Ministry of the Interior has given the municipalities of Thessaly that suffered damages 122 million euros. This amount does not include, as he clarified, the restoration of damages to schools, which was undertaken by the Department of Infrastructure.

The deputy minister of public affairs pointed out that the Daniel phenomenon was unprecedented both in terms of the intensity it had and the area it affected, recalling that there were municipalities that completely collapsed due to the floods. He noted that there were immediate interventions and assistance to the municipalities, while he underlined that there were also special interventions in areas where there were landslides, such as in Morphobouni, or which are still flooded, such as the Parakarlia villages.

“There is no day to lose” said Th. Livanios and announced that the bill for the postal vote will include a provision that will allow a grace period of one year for the payment of rents to farmers who have rented land from municipalities. With the same provision, it will be possible to extend the contract with the farmers for two more years.

As the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications said, there is constant communication with all the municipal authorities and the Region with the aim of utilizing all the institutional tools that will help in the reconstruction of Thessaly. He called on the representatives of the Self-Government to speed up the procedures for this purpose.

D. Kouretas: The restoration of the embankments is important

The regional governor of Thessaly, Dimitris Kouretas, emphasized that emphasis should be placed on special groups of farmers, such as that of the producers around Karla and in the area of ​​Palamas, Farkadona and Tyrnavos.

He mentioned that already thanks to the cooperation with the relevant ministries, the Karditsa-Larissa road was completed on December 21, much earlier than the original calculation.

He pointed out the special importance of the four invitations that have been announced and concern the restoration of the dykes, while underlining that the inclusion of Pelion’s beaches in the specific planning is also of particular importance.

Finally, the regional governor expressed his satisfaction with the course of restoration of the embankments and expressed hope for further cooperation.

V. Tsiakos: We must focus on anti-flood protection

The mayor of Karditsa, Mr. Vassilis Tsiakos, emphasized that the Municipality showed Daniel its social face and added that in addition to repairing the damage, projects should be carried out that strengthen the sense of security among the citizens. And he noted that we need to focus on flood defences.

This afternoon in Karditsa, the government echelon consisting of the Ministers of Rural Development & Food Lefteris Avgenakis, Energy & Environment Theodoros Skylakakis, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Nikos Tachiaos and the Minister of European Resources & Infrastructure Dimitris Papagiannidis and Urban Environment Thymios Bakoyannis will have a meeting with the representatives of TOEB and GOEB of Thessaly.

Also, on Thursday afternoon, the Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Dionysis Stamenitis and Stavros Keletsis and the Minister of State Giorgos Stratakos will have a meeting with sugar beet producers.