“The issue of water privatization does not exist” assured the Minister of Environment and Energy Theodoros Skylakakis to the Institutions and Transparency Committee during the hearing of the proposals proposed by the Ministers of the Interior, Environment & Energy and Rural Development & Food, for appointment to the positions of the vice president and five members for the Board of Directors of the Waste, Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (RAAEF).

Mr. Skylakakis emphasized that “even if the opposition talks about the privatization of water, such an intention does not exist” and wondered why such a discussion is taking place “when it is completely unrelated to reality”.

“It is a real shame to waste valuable political time, with political confrontations on a non-issue. Especially when water is one of the few national issues due to the climate crisis, which should – as for the issue of Thrace there is a perception that there is no need for sterile confrontations – so water should also be an issue of fruitful confrontation between the parties » said the minister.

Mr. Skylakakis clarified that with the appointment of the members of the FSA and its activation, the authority assumed in the interim, with the KYA of water pricing by the Ministry of Environment & Energy and the Ministry of National Economy & Finance, will cease.

He noted that “RAAEF, as one of its main responsibilities, has the control of tariffs so that there is no excessive burden on water consumers from increases that are not justified by facts”. He pointed out that “there is a whole legislation as well as an EU Directive on how water should be priced, because it is a public good and it should be priced on the basis of costs”.

In Greece, the minister observed, “we do not have a uniform pricing method followed by the various municipal or other businesses. There are many DEVAs that work great, but we also have many others that do exactly the opposite.”

Mr. Skylakakis underlined that “water policy should be high on our priorities in the coming years, because the sufficiency of water is an issue that with mathematical certainty we will be called upon to deal with immediately, in the medium and long term”.

The ND MPs gave a positive vote for the placement of Professor Constantinos-Evangelos Arabosis as vice-president of the ERAEF as well as the appointment as members of the Authority of Professors Georgios Loizos, Dionysios Asimakopoulos, Vasilios Dedousis, Prodromos Vlamis and Ioannis Tjortzis.

KKE and Pleussi Eleftherias expressed a negative opinion on the government’s policy that RAAEY is called upon to operate and not on the adequacy of the proposals. With the same political reasoning, SYRIZA, PASOK, Hellenic Solution, New Left, Niki and Spartans declared “present”.