“THE government he had committed pre-election that will satisfy the chronic demand of expatriates from Albania and former Soviet Union“for the normalization and award of an increased national pension”, said the Deputy Minister of Labor, responsible for Social Security issues, Panagiotis Tsakloglou. The deputy minister, speaking to the parliamentary committee that is working on the provisions for the national pension of expatriates, said that despite the restrictions due to the ten-year economic crisis, pandemic and war in Ukraine today, “the government chose to listen to expatriates and returnees , and with this bill to satisfy their request and to redress an injustice “.
Mr. Tsakloglou pointed out that until now, the granting of the national pension for expatriates from Albania and the former Soviet Union, had as a condition their residence in the country for 40 years, “that is, which is a general condition for all insured” . “The criterion of residence, however, objectively resulted in the impossibility of granting a full amount of the national pension to our fellow citizens, since the borders of their countries of residence were opened in 1990, in the best of cases,” said Mr. Tsakloglou. The proposed provision, which is valid from 1.1.2022 and for a transitional period of 10 years ending in 2032, “sets as a requirement 30 instead of 40 years of residence, in order for expatriates to receive a full national pension. Then, gradually this limit is adjusted annually, so that after 10 years, the conditions are equalized for all beneficiaries and now 40 years of residence are normally required “.
THE Undersecretary of Labor He also said that the bill increases in real terms the national pension already received by retired expatriates, as it changes from now on the way it is calculated and its recalculation is completed. Until now, the pension was calculated in relation to how many years of residence remained, out of 40 years.
Full national pension with 20 years instead of 30 years of legal and permanent residence in Greece, requested Iliana Kandaidou, general secretary of the Panhellenic Federation of Repatriated Expatriates (POSEP), during the hearing of the bodies, in the Parliamentary committee that drafts the bill, with the of expatriates from Albania and the former Soviet Union.
“Our federation, as the only representative secondary organization and institution, which since 1996 represents all Greek expatriates from the former Soviet Union, addresses you today to thank you, and the government, for the initiative to amend the legislation. of law 4387/2016, of the so-called Katrougalos law “, said Ms. Kandaidou and added:” This law, in our opinion, violates, violates the insurance rights of the expatriates coming from the former Soviet Union. It is obvious that this category of Greeks is the only social group that – for objective reasons – could not reside in Greece for 40 years as defined in article 2 of the above law, in order to be entitled to full retirement.
Maybe the expatriates began to come to Greece in 1990, but their legal residence en masse and essentially began in 2000, with the law on the Rehabilitation of Repatriated Expatriates, said Ms. Kandaidou, who recalled that Law 2790/2000 was the one that gave the expatriates the possibility of acquiring Greek citizenship and legalization. “Therefore, if from 2000 until today, 20 years of continuous legal residence in Greece are completed, and the expatriates want, they do not complete 40 or 30 years”, said Ms. Kandaidou and added: “We ask for 30 years to become 20 , for one and only reason: To serve the vast majority “.
Referring to the uninsured elderly of OPEC, the general secretary of the Panhellenic Federation of Returning Expatriates, predicted that the condition of staying in the country for 35 years for full benefit of uninsured elderly, will make it impossible to classify them.
Stefanos Tanimanidis, communications representative of the World Council of Pontian Hellenism (PASPE) and honorary president of the Panhellenic Federation of Pontian Associations (POPS) called on all parties to consider that “we are talking about that group of Greek expatriates, during the October Revolution were cut off from metropolitan Greece for a number of reasons. They suffered persecution under Stalinism, a genocide of 50-60 thousand of our compatriots. “And unfortunately, with their return here, after ’89 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the war zone, there was no national policy to support them, especially for their stay in the countries where they lived for 80 years.”
“That is, we had forgotten 500,000 Greeks. They came here and unfortunately there was no national policy on where to settle. Everyone went here and there anarchically. “There was no policy for social inclusion, there was no policy for housing and employment rehabilitation,” Mr. Tanimanidis insisted.
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