Waste management: Corfu seeking arbitration from Environment Minister

Corfu mayor, Kostas Nikolouzos and Regional Governor, Theodoros Galiatsatos have arranged a meeting at the Ministry for the Environment in order to remove any doubts about the available options regarding waste management. Following a previous postponement, the meeting has been arranged for 11am on Saturday, on the fringes of the SYRIZA central committee meeting, seeing as that all the relevant people will be there. There has been all kinds of talk and rumours about this meeting as nobody can imagine what else there is to say about waste management that hasn’t already been said a thousand times.

Kostas Nikolouzos told Enimerosi, “Along with the Regional Governor for the Ionian Islands, we requested this meeting because at the moment we’re between a rock and a hard place. We believe that matters were made clear at the recent Development Conference, but it seems that for some others it wasn’t so clear and that’s why we have asked for the issue to be solved. Because some people are saying that we can get ministry funding for waste transportation and that we aren’t pushing hard enough, we want to clear the matter up once and for all.”

SYRIZA has a different view

The local SYRIZA party has stated clearly that they disagree with the solution of the Lefkimmi landfill and that they have an alternative proposal which doesn’t involve Lefkimmi and which won’t cost local residents anything. Although the proposal from the local SYRIZA party won’t be announced until Saturday evening, it has been leaked that their solution is to transport waste to the mainland. The local coordinator, Giannis Kritikos, confirmed that, “Transportation is part of the solution.” When asked if he was going to participate in the meeting with the minister, he replied that he had no official place in such a meeting. “I will be in Athens, however, for the Central Committee meeting and I will discuss my views with other members – chiefly Messrs Skorinis and Rigas. Naturally, if I am asked to take part in the meeting, I have no reason to refuse.”

Apart from Kostas Nikolouzos, Theodoros Galiatsatos and the Minister for the Environment, Panos Skourletis, the following will also be present at the meeting: the General Secretary for the Coordination of Waste Management, Evaggelos Kapetanios, deputy minister, Mr. Famelos, as well as the two Corfu SYRIZA MPs, Kostas Pavlidis and Fotini Vaki.