The issue of the waste burial fee, on the occasion of the recent decision of the EDSNA EU on the payment of the burial fee, which threatens to derail the budgets of the 66 municipalities of Attica, was the dominant theme of the first meeting for 2025 of the Board of Directors of KEDE.

The president of KEDE, Lazaros Kyrizoglou, during his presentation, described the decision of the EU of EDSNA as unfortunate. He emphasized that “waste management should be the exclusive responsibility of the municipalities of Attica, which is not the case today and we are finally asking for this to be put into practice”.

Mr. Kyrizoglou noted that there is an attempt by many to instrumentalize and politically exploit the whole issue, recalling that the burial fee was imposed in 2012, its application was suspended in order in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019. In 2021, with Law 4819, the its enforcement from 1/1/2022.

“Therefore, he emphasized, over time the respective governments hid the issue “under the carpet”. And today there are many who are tearing up their robes in favor of abolishing the burial tax, but this involves great hypocrisy. The burial fee does not lend itself to instrumentalization and political exploitation” and added:

“We, KEDE and municipalities, must come out of this process united, it is not our issue, the government is called upon to provide a solution.”

Mr. Kyrizoglou reiterated that KEDE’s position is to abolish the burial fee. “We, he emphasized, are against the burial tax and we proved it by appealing together with 165 municipalities to the Council of Ministers with a request for its abolition. Our appeal was heard on December 3, 2024, we await the decision and hope to be vindicated because it is an unfair fine and an unconstitutional measure”.

The decision of the Board of Directors of KEDE

The KEDE, by its decision, adheres to its previous decision of 22/12/2021 regarding the issues of organizational and operational structure for the waste management of Attica, which is identical, with the fixed view and position of the KEDE, as it has been formulated with decisions of the Board of Directors and its conferences from 2014 until today, with which the opinion is completely adopted that waste management is a purely local matter that concerns only first-class municipalities.

The Board of Directors also agrees with the unanimous decision of PEDA and the competent PEDA Energy Environment and Waste Management Committee, which concerns the organizational and operational structure of Attica’s waste management, with the conversion of EDSNA to FODSA.