Mayors from the region of Attica went to a four-hour protest and gathered at a meeting in front of the Ministry of Regional Development. Their protest is against the reduction by half of the state funding to municipalities. In 2009, the state allocated a budget of five billion euro for operating costs and funding of projects and in 2012, these funds have been reduced to 2.5 billion euro. After the government of George Papandreou adopted the reform in regional planning and consolidated the municipalities by regions, the number of municipalities has been reduced from 1034 to 325. Many of the fixed term contracts of municipal employees were not renewed, others participated in the voluntary leave programme. Fiscal consolidation locally reduced costs by 70%. Employees, who retained their job, are paid 30% less. The government promised that local authorities would not completely lose their state subsidies to operate, which seems not quite so at present.
"We adopted the reforms of local government back in 2010, but things have been getting worse ever since," said especially for GRReporter the Mayor of Kouropias municipality, Dimitris Kiousis. He said the biggest problem after the cuts is that municipalities are not able to carry out any of the ongoing projects due to the lack of any assistance from the central government.
They are talking about giving an impetus to economic development in times of crisis, but these are empty words, said the Mayor. He stressed that municipalities are currently operating only with European Union funds from the national strategic development framework, but they are limited and not enough. "Funding from the budget has been cut by half, the state investment programme remains on paper only and the funds have not been put into action." Mayors are indignant at the non-payment of 450 million euro, which was to be allocated at the beginning of this year, but has not yet been paid.
These funds are designated specifically for the needs of local government organizations but have actually remained frozen since 2010. The main problems in municipalities remain incomplete projects in waste management, sanitation, road infrastructure. "Our municipalities are not provided for and there are no serious infrastructures - everything related to the daily needs of citizens." Serious difficulties are noted in the maintenance of municipal kindergartens, cleanliness, common areas and services related with the care of homeless and disadvantaged people. "There is a huge deficit and it cannot be covered only by European Union grants."
The revision of the supervisory Troika of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank made it clear that along with the social security system, local government organizations are one of the biggest black holes in the Greek budget. Mayors, in turn, disagree with this position. They do not deny that supervision on the use of funds allocated to municipalities should be strengthened but it is not reasonable to completely stop the funding. "We know that the state funding programme has been severely reduced, but it has not been cancelled, so the funds should be paid. We are looking for alternative funding, but the state must also assume its share of responsibility. Otherwise, it will be impossible for the municipal services to operate and perform their duties," concluded Kiousis.
Representatives of mayors of the Attica region met with Minister of Regional Development Thassos Yianitsis, but a consensus was not reached. The state has no available funds to meet the demands of protesters and the interim government of Lucas Papademos will be in power for about a month, which does not allow significant manoeuvres. However, municipal governors and mayors have decided to continue their active strike and on Thursday, there will be a second four-hour strike between 11 am and 3 pm as was held on Tuesday.
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