The recording and first assessment of the damage to the infrastructure projects after the bad weather Daniel, and the modernization of the national legal framework related to road freight transport with hired vehicles by the Minister of Infrastructure and Metamarkets, the bill of the Ministry of the Interior that concerns more than 500 operators of the Public Sector (Public Law Legal Entities and Private Law Legal Entities for which the choice of administrations belongs to the government) as well as bills of the Ministries of Health, Development, Justice and Tourism as well as a proposal by the Minister of State A. Skertsos, were discussed and approved today at the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

In particular, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Christos Staikouras and the Deputy Minister Nikos Tachiaos presented to the Council of Ministers the recording and the first assessment of the damage to the infrastructure projects in the affected areas after the bad weather Daniel.

The timeline of the incident, the current situation in the affected areas, the immediate legal actions of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the organization of teams of engineers for on-site autopsies, the introduction to a Geographical Information System and the planning of the next actions for their restoration were presented.

Mr. Staikouras also presented to the Council of Ministers the bill for the integration of Directives 2021/1187 of the European Parliament and of the Council of July 7, 2021, on streamlining measures to promote the implementation of the Trans-European Transport Network and 2022/738 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on hired vehicles without a driver in road freight transport.

With this draft law, the national legal framework concerning road freight transport with hired vehicles is modernized and harmonized with the recent changes in the relevant European legislation. Priority is also given to the implementation of specific transport infrastructure projects that are part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) through the supervision, organization and acceleration of the licensing procedures that are required and precede the implementation of the projects and the procedures to be followed by the promoters are clarified of projects, in relation to licensing, public procurement and other procedures.

For their part, the Minister of the Interior Niki Kerameos and the Deputy Minister Vivi Charalambogiannis presented to the Council of Ministers the bill “New framework for the selection of administrations of public bodies and strengthening their effectiveness” which will institute a new, flexible and more targeted selection system and evaluation of the administrations of the Public Sector bodies.

The bill concerns more than 500 Public Sector entities (Public Law Legal Entities and Private Law Legal Entities for which the choice of administrations belongs to the government). The main objectives of the bill are the upgrading of the requirements for each position, so that the executives who will be selected have increased qualifications and abilities, the strengthening of meritocracy and transparency, the effectiveness of the system through the acceleration of procedures and the evaluation of administrations every two years , with the possibility of reward (productivity bonus) or pause, depending on the achievement or non-achievement of the set goals, ensuring accountability.

The bill, which introduces a series of innovations, moves along two axes: On the one hand, the process of selecting the administrations of Public Sector bodies and on the other, their evaluation.

With this particular bill, a holistic model of selection and evaluation of the Administrations is established with the aim of empowering and strengthening the State agencies, in the direction of creating a state that always puts the citizen at the center.

The Minister of Health, Michalis Chrysochoidis, presented to the Council of Ministers a bill for the establishment, organization and operation of Advanced Care Units for the treatment of stroke patients.

This bill creates a national network of 17 stroke units with 6 beds per unit which will cover all regions of Greece for specialized, timely, integrated and patient-centered care. At least 7,500 patients will be treated annually in these units, with an expected benefit of 150 fewer stroke deaths per year and 1,275 fewer patients. The goal of the bill is to reduce stroke mortality, improve independence for post-stroke patients, and ultimately mitigate the emotional and financial costs to patients and their families.

The Minister of Development Kostas Skrekas presented to the Council of Ministers the bill for the integration of Directive 2021/2101 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 24, 2021 on the publication of income tax data from certain businesses and branches and Article 1 of Directive 2019/1151 of European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019, regarding the use of digital tools and procedures in the field of commercial law in relation to disqualified directors.

The bill establishes additional tools to increase transparency in relation to the activities of multinational enterprises and to enable the public to assess the impact of the activities of such enterprises on the real economy.

The Minister of Justice Giorgos Floridis presented to the Council of Ministers the bill for the implementation of the provisions of Regulation 2021/784 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 29, 2021 regarding the prevention of the spread of terrorist content on the internet.

With the implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/784 proposed bill, the competent national authorities for issuing removal orders and control of cross-border removal orders for terrorist content are determined, the removal procedure is described, and the national Authority for supervising the implementation of the special measures to deal with the abuse of services is determined of hosting for the public dissemination of terrorist content and its responsibilities, the maintenance of the registry of hosting service providers, as well as the file of removal orders, as well as the imposition of criminal and administrative sanctions on hosting service providers, their legal protection as well as transparency obligations are foreseen to which both the national competent authorities and the hosting service providers must comply.

The Minister of Tourism Olga Kefalogianni presented to the Council of Ministers the funding bill of the Ministry of Tourism.

The fundraising bill regulates operational issues of the National Observatory of Sustainable Tourism Development, Regional Tourism Council. The bill establishes the Regional Tourism Council, as an institutional advisory body for the purpose of shaping the tourism policy of the country’s regions, which will consist of the 13 regional governors, chaired by the Minister of Tourism. It is also envisaged to establish a Wine Tourism Council for the purpose of sustainable development, promotion and promotion of wine-related attractions in the context of the implementation of the National Strategic Development for Wine Tourism and, finally, a Research and Monitoring Center for Coastal and Marine Tourism in the Mediterranean will be established.

The Minister of State Akis Skertsos made a proposal to the Council of Ministers regarding the approval of Ministries’ objectives for 2024 within the framework of the Unified Government Policy Plan.

In his presentation, the Minister of State presented the planning of government work, the critical milestones of the Recovery and Resilience Fund, 78 regulatory interventions (34 laws and 44 acts of secondary legislation) as well as 94 flagship policies, actions and projects concerning the fourth quarter of 2023 Finally, the planning for the 2024 Annual Action Plans was briefly presented.

Finally, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Christos Staikouras and the Deputy Minister Nikos Tachiaos made recommendations to the Council of Ministers regarding projects for the upgrading of infrastructure and transport: a) Contract for the assignment and maintenance of the Thessaloniki metro network, b) Contract for the improvement of the 9th National Road (Gialova Bypass) PE Messinia), c) Proclamation of forced expropriation of properties for the traffic upgrade of the Internal Ring Road of Thessaloniki.

In particular, regarding the contract for the commissioning and operation of the maintenance of the Thessaloniki metro, it is foreseen that the Contractor will have full responsibility for the daily operation and maintenance of fixed assets, equipment, spare parts, for the functional integration of the projects in the two phases, taking into account the provided E/M systems and both generations of rolling stock. The scope of the services includes, but not limited to, the basic services of operation, maintenance, cleaning, safekeeping, management of the automatic fee collection system.

The contract for the improvement of the 9th National Road (Yalova Bypass Messinia) includes the improvement of a 3.5 km section of the existing 9th National Road and the construction of a new 4.2 km section for the bypass of the settlement of Gialova. With this project, EO 9 is being upgraded, reducing journey times and increasing road safety levels. By improving the geometric characteristics and width of the road, users will be offered safety and comfort, contributing to the reduction of accidents.

Finally, the declaration of forced expropriation of properties for the traffic upgrade of the Inner Ring Road of Thessaloniki is expected to significantly improve the traffic conditions of the city of Thessaloniki through the urbanization of the Inner Ring Road of Thessaloniki in the section from A/K K5 (Papageorgiou Hospital) to A/K K12 (connection with E.O. Thessaloniki – Moudania) 13 km long.