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Victoria Mindova

Owners of taxis in Greece continued their strike in the strongest period of the summer season. About 35 thousand taxi drivers in the country have ceased work for almost two weeks as a protest against the government’a plans to remove the limitation on the number of licenses issued for taxi ownership. To date, there was a valid restriction which determines the number of taxis as a ratio of the number of residents in a given populated area. This restriction falls after the liberalization of the market, anyone who meets the requirements and has a professional driver's license may acquire a license and start working.

"We came with a desire to enter into a constructive dialogue with the ministry to consider our demands and reach to a consensus in order to end the strike. The minister showed interest in dialogue, but made no commitment to the demands set", said after the meeting at the Ministry of Transport the chairman of the Union of Owners of taxis Timmy Liberopoulo.

Owners of charges in Greece have requested from the Minister of Transport Yannis Ragusis personally a written commitment that he will not liberalize their sector immediately and will give them a grace period for adjustment to new circumstances. Moreover, they want to preserve the restriction on issuing licenses in relation to the number of residents in the various communities, by stressing that this is a condition that applies in other European countries.

Until now, in Greece the number of licenses issued was limited. Therefore their market price could reach between 90-100 thousand euros and were sold between the parties without officially transferring it and therefore not paying the tax on the transaction.

Furthermore, there is no national register in which to register the changes of the licenses and the state has not been issuing new ones for years. New enthusiasts who want to become owners of taxis most frequently take a consumer mortgage loan to enter into the business. Adding aslo the investment for a car, taxi owners say they have their costs too high for the state to allow each volunteer with the respective category of driver’s license to become a taxi owner from the middle of this year.

Considering the prospect of removing the restrictions with the market liberalization and the ministry starting to issue an unlimited number of licenses for not more than four or five thousand euros specialists claim that the prices of the permits have decreased.

The strike of the owners of taxi licenses throughout Greece has been going on for 12 days now, but the country continues to function normally and without their services. The tourists are the ones who have the most difficulties to travel from airports, railway stations and ports, but they do not want or it is not convenient for them to use public transport. To their relief, many hotels in the capital and the country have provided private vans for transportation to facilitate the stay of guests of the city.

There are also many of the residents of the city who say that the strike of the owners of taxis is the best thing that happened in Athens after the Olympics. Due to the holiday period and approximately 10,000 taxi cars, traffic in the largest city of Greece is minimal and in the rush hours there are no traffic jams on the capital's streets and boulevards.

President of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises Andreas Andreadis also met with the Minister of Transport Yannis Ragousis and expressed his keen dissatisfaction with the development of the strike. He said that Greece is now in a key period, and many cruise companies are on the verge of withdrawing from the coasts of Greece, if the situation around local ports does not become more stable. The blocking of ports by various striking groups including the owners of taxis is a common practice, which seriously impedes the flow of tourists in the country.

Meanwhile, Andreadis announced that this year there is a growth in tourism of 14 per cent compared with 2010, which gives 1% rise to the GDP. If the problem with taxis is not resolved soon, this could seriously affect the industry and the advantage gained may be lost. Andriadis stressed that the Minister of Transport should pay attention also to the air transport and airport infrastructure improvement, because 75% of thetourists arriving use the aircrafts to visit the country.