Greek ports could attract significant funds from Juncker package‏

Gazzetta team 1 Οκτωβρίου 2015 - 12:22

Greek ports could attract significant funds from Juncker package -totaling 35 billion euros in the period 2014-2021- offering a big respite to the Greek economy which remains in a recession, but needs to overcome bureaucracy in absorbing EU funds, Port Regulatory Authority officials told ANA-MPA on Thursday.

Costas Moutzouris, head of the Port Regulatory Authority and a professor of port projects in the Athens Polytechnic School, told ANA-MPA that Greek municipalities have several mature reports on port projects that could be included in the Juncker package, but at the same time several other port municipalities lacked the necessary master plan to seek additional funding for projects.

The Authority recommended that the Public Works Secretariat General would collect data from all port authorities around the country and then approve the needed projects. Moutzouris said that the Juncker package was possibly the last opportunity for port project works in the country but noted that Greek authorities must adopt a new approach towards the issue. He warned that emphasis must be given to projects with mature reports unless there was the risk of losing community funds. Moutzouris said that the Juncker package could offer around 150-200 million euros to port projects with mature reports and stressed that bureaucracy needed to be overcome to significantly reduce time delays.