While the staff of the Zakynthos National Marine Park (ZNMP) in Greece enter the 4th week of their withdrawal of labour, having not been paid since August 2003, the Deputy Minister of the Environment, Stavros Kalogiannis, answering a question on the subject in the Greek Parliament on the 20th May 2004, stated that “EC and National programme funds available for the environment are sufficient to cover the financial needs of the ZNMP”. What he didn’t say was that this would depend on Greece paying its 50% share so as to qualify for EC contribution. He said “the lack of money to pay the ZNMP expenses is mainly due to the fact that the Greek Ministry agencies responsible for the processing of the Operational Programme ‘Environment’ (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF) functions at an extremely slow pace”.

He went on to state “The ZNMP authority should look into bringing a balance between local people’s reactions and turtle protection”. He failed to mention that to stop the reaction, landowners affected by development restrictions of the Park should be compensated, which is not as he claimed the job of the ZNMP but of the Government.
He said “apart from expecting funds from the Operational Programme ‘Environment’, they should also look for alternative funding solutions for the Park, e.g. to the ‘LIFE Nature’ and ‘Interact 3’ programmes”. He did not mention that an existing ‘LIFE Nature’ project in Zakynthos is currently frozen due to the fact that the Government is withholding its share of funds to make it operational!

A very well researched full page illustrated article by Cordelia Madden entitled ‘TURTLES LOSERS IN OLYMPIC FUND RUN?’ was published in ‘Athens News’ on Friday 21st May. It comments, ‘with its curiously mismatched triple bill of responsibilities, the Ministry of Environment, Public Works and Urban Planning does have a lot on its pre-Olympics plate - It is responsible for 40% of the venue constructions as well as all the road-works around Attica’.
The article continues with: “It’s not that they don’t want to help,” says a commission source that visited the ZNMP last summer. “We have been putting pressure on the Ministry to act, and [Deputy Minister] Stavros Kalogiannis is very positive about helping the Park – he said it was top priority. But he doesn’t control the budget, and as far as I understand, all the money goes to the Olympics now”.

The Author’s questions addressed to the Ministry of the Environment remain unanswered!

To read the full English text of the article please visit the Athens News website at www. athensnews.gr

MEDASSET