Block 2: Mayor Poulimenos says “Yes” to exploration, but with environmental safeguards

Speaking to ERT Corfu, the mayor placed hydrocarbon exploration within the country’s energy policy, distancing himself from calls for the project to be cancelled.

The position concerns the municipal administration, rather than the Municipality as a collective institution. The official position will emerge from the Municipal Council, which will discuss the issue on Wednesday 7 October at 19:00.

The discussion is taking place, however, after the completion of the public consultation on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Asopos-1A, which ended on 23 September. In the period leading up to it, the Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands Municipality had not taken a collective decision on the study, despite calls for the matter to be brought before the Municipal Council.

Different positions

Different approaches have already emerged within the Municipality.

The Coordinating Committee of Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands Community Presidents has unanimously opposed the drilling, calling for the licensing process to be halted.

The Laiki Sispirosi party had already called in September for an extraordinary meeting of the Municipal Council and for the project to be rejected. Subsequently, Giorgos Karydis’ Kerkyraiki Symmachia party submitted its own request for the issue to be discussed, accompanied by a draft opinion rejecting the project outright and calling for no permit to be granted for the drilling.

Meropi Ydraiou has taken a different approach. Her municipal faction submitted comments during the public consultation that do not reject the exploration, but call for strict environmental conditions, independent monitoring, an institutional role for the Municipality, and specific compensatory benefits for Corfu, particularly the Diapontia Islands. She also makes clear that, together with representatives of the Diapontia Islands, she had repeatedly called for the issue to be discussed by the Municipal Council.

“It does not institutionally concern local government”

Of particular interest is Poulimenos’ statement that the issue “does not institutionally concern local government”.

The remark is expected to become one of the points of discussion, as local-government bodies in other areas have already made use of the consultation process. The Municipality of Igoumenitsa gave a conditional positive opinion on the exploration phase and the use of its port as a support base, while the Region of Epirus also issued a positive opinion.

On Monday 5 October, the Regional Council of the Ionian Islands is also being convened in an extraordinary session to give its opinion on the EIA. The invitation issued by the Region of the Ionian Islands cites the completion of the consultation and the Environment Ministry’s immediate advancement of the procedures.

Meanwhile, operational planning for the drilling is moving forward, with the aim of commencing in spring 2027, provided the necessary permits are secured beforehand.

Thus, within a few days there will be two key local-government meetings: the Regionall Authority on Monday and the Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands Municipality on Wednesday.

And the discussion at the Municipal Council will no longer concern an abstract possibility. It will be called upon to set out the Municipality’s official position on a drilling operation planned in the waters off the Diapontia Islands and already at an advanced stage of preparation.

GIORGOS KATSAITIS