By Yannis Anifantis

The important localization of recruitment in mountainous and island regions was announced by the Speaker of the Parliament, Theodoros Livanios, pointing out that this regulation will be included in the bill for speeding up the ASEP procedures that will come to the Parliament in early September.

“We will prioritize locality mainly in the mountainous and island areas, which I consider very important”, emphasized the Minister of the Interior in response to a topical question from the MP of the New Left Nasos Iliopoulos.

“The big change is the locality premium. Mountainous – island municipalities are particularly in need, regardless of population, island municipalities, I cannot understand why, for example, Lesbos should not get locality and someone from Athens should come to Lesvos to work. If there are graduates, we want them to stay in their place and work for public services for the benefit of the local communities where they live”, added the Minister, clarifying that no population criteria will be set especially for the islands.

Th. Livanios even argued that with this measure citizens will be motivated to remain in their place of permanent residence, simultaneously solving the issue of high rents: “If a position opens up in the Municipality of Prespa and there is an interested graduate from the Municipality of Prespa, be rewarded with such a significant rank that he be appointed near his place of residence by accomplishing two things. The first thing is that it motivates a young person to stay in his place, knowing that he has his place over there, and the second thing, which especially concerns island Greece and highly touristic areas, is that it gives us a terribly big problem that exists which is the housing of civil servants, the rent of which in many parts of Greece is much higher even than the salary of a newly appointed civil servant”.

“The intention is to speed up the procedures to go quickly to take advantage of the interoperability to take advantage of this change that has been made in the way the state operates. And for ASEP to be able to do its job more effectively and faster, it is not always the solution to increase specific people”, underlined the Minister.