“We had a very constructive discussion last week with the farmers,” he said, among other things. He added that they have run out of room and they don’t want us to create expectations that we can’t meet.
At the same time he emphasized that the government is in constant communication with the farmers on a broader agricultural issue such as the CAP and illegal Greekizations. Regarding the agricultural oil for 2025, he noted that there will be a discussion in order to have a fairer and more permanent framework for the EFFK.
Asked about Greek-Turkish relations, Mr. Marinakis said that we believe in dialogue and that dialogue in the big picture is much more useful for the two countries. He emphasized that this does not mean that we are naive and added that the dialogue is constantly being evaluated and that we will continue to pursue the dialogue without any inclination to retreat to our sovereign rights.
The introductory position of Mr. Marinakis
Good afternoon and good week,
The Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis and the Deputy Minister Marios Themistokleous gave a press conference a little while ago about the reforms in Health, the modernization of the Unified List of Surgeries and the operation of the afternoon surgeries.
Surgery lists are kept in all European Health systems. The situation of the waiting time in the countries of Europe varies depending on the country. In some countries, such as Sweden, the waiting time for non-urgent surgery is 50 days on average.
Through the Unified List of Surgery, the following are ensured:
• Transparency
• Quality assurance
• Health Insurance
• Accessibility
• Efficiency
• Care Coordination
In order to deal with both the delays and to improve the operation of the Surgery List, the Ministry of Health made strategic decisions.
The solutions were based on two pillars. The first in ensuring the correct adherence to the Surgery List and in its continuous monitoring. The second, in the modernization of its operation with a priority on its full digitization.
For the smooth functioning and modernization of the List of Surgeries, the new Digitized Single List has been instituted and will be in full force within the next few weeks.
With the aim of reducing waiting times for surgery, the activation of afternoon surgeries begins with immediate effect. In this way, more surgeries will be performed every day in order to serve as many citizens as possible. According to the study done, the capacity of the system with the afternoon surgeries is expected to increase by more than 20%.
It should be emphasized that the morning surgeries are not affected at all. They will function in full as they have functioned until today. For this reason, it will be checked whether each clinic performs the same number of surgeries as it did before the start of the afternoon surgeries.
In order to carry out afternoon surgeries in the country’s Hospitals, 60 million euros will be used from the Recovery and Resilience Fund to serve citizens who are waiting for surgery, so that they are not burdened with the costs.
The prioritization of the operations will be done according to the Unified List of Surgeries, while the categorization of the operations has been created, based on medical criteria. This categorization will also determine the cost, which will be much lower than the corresponding one in private hospitals.
The afternoon surgeries are planned and will be implemented with a view to being a permanent solution for the Health system. This specific initiative, together with the funding from the Recovery Fund, will be used as tools to immediately reduce the waiting time of citizens, but the ultimate goal is to become a permanent possibility of the E.S.Y.
The electronic platform for the registration of citizens in the special electoral lists of postal votes for the European elections was launched today. Citizens who wish to do so have the possibility to submit applications to exercise their right to vote through postal voting until April 29, 2024.
With the institutionalization of postal voting, all practical obstacles to the exercise of the right to vote of Greeks who have the right to vote, wherever they are, are removed.
The application of postal voting concerns all Greek citizens who are registered in the electoral rolls and wish to exercise their right to vote, inside or outside the territory.
Greek voters living abroad can exercise their right to vote in the upcoming European elections exclusively by postal vote, while voters inside Greece can vote by postal vote if they choose, not necessarily.
The bill is being introduced in Parliament in time for the new leases to be concluded for this year’s period to be governed by the new rules, regarding, among other things, the minimum distances between the concessions, the maximum area of the beach that is allowed to be granted for exploitation and the ensuring fraud beaches where this is required.
The new regulations are structured around five axes which include:
- Provisions for the protection of the beaches with a classification that also includes the “cheated beaches” and for ensuring the free access of the citizens.
- Central execution of concession tenders by the State Real Estate Service.
- Establishment of new obligations of concessionaires.
- Interventions for more effective controls and facilitation of complaints by citizens using modern technology.
5. Strict penalties for offenders.
The same draft law also includes the regulations regarding the return of the Special Consumption Tax for agricultural oil. The provisions that were filed provide, among other things, the following:
- A zero VAT rate is set for natural gas oil used in agriculture, for the period from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, with the application of the refund procedure to farmers entitled to the VAT, who pay when purchasing the fuel.
- It is provided that a percentage of the entitled refund amounts may be paid in advance.
- It is expressly stated that the refund amount of the excise duty is non-assignable and non-dischargeable.
At the same time, the draft law includes provisions for increasing the compensation for on-call and the upper salary limit of the doctors of the E.S.Y. The Government’s goal is to strengthen the National Health System and improve the salary of doctors following the 10% increase that has already been legislated.
With the new provisions, the medical staff of the National Health Service will have an average increase of 20% in their on-call compensation.
Public Health is the first priority for the Government and with targeted interventions we strengthen the NHS with the aim of improving the conditions for medical and nursing staff as well as for patients.
The increase of the presence of the Greek Police in the neighborhoods with the aim of strengthening the security of the citizens is one of the main objectives of the Government.
The Ministry of Citizen Protection gives priority to visible policing and strengthening the Traffic.
For this reason, during the last period of time, 260 additional police officers were allocated to the Crime Prevention and Suppression Teams in Athens and 150 in Thessaloniki, 120 in foot patrols in the center of Athens, 284 in the Immediate Action in Attica, while a separate plan is being implemented to deal with of crime in Western Attica.
Regarding Traffic, 200 additional police officers and 40 new traffic wardens were assigned. 4 drones were activated for traffic control and 25 new infringement verification crews were created.
At the same time, 25 new traffic accident prevention teams were created for intensive checks during the night, two-wheeled teams for immediate intervention were doubled and 74 new police officers were added in Thessaloniki with an emphasis on facilitating traffic on the Flyover.
The Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, signed a Ministerial Decision on the Regulation of Drug Pricing Issues, according to which, the additional charge on generic drugs cannot exceed the amount of three (3) euros for each formulation.
The recent decision of the EOPYY says that the EOPYY reimburses the cheapest generic. This potentially creates the risk that if a patient or their doctor chooses a more expensive generic, the difference is passed on to the patient. In most cases this base is too small, because generic prices are low and close to each other. But in some borderline cases there could potentially be quite a large burden.
So, in order to avoid this distortion, in the new Ministerial Decision it is provided for generic medicines that the additional burden of a patient cannot be more than 3 euros per preparation.
Regarding the farmers’ mobilizations tomorrow in Athens, there will be traffic regulations for which an update will be made by the Hellenic Police Headquarters within the next few hours.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will have a meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi at 17:00 at the Maximos Palace.
Tomorrow, Tuesday 20 February, the Prime Minister leaves for India, where he is on an official visit at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister will be formally received by Mr. Modi on Wednesday morning. In the afternoon of the same day, Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be the guest of honor and keynote speaker at the 9th Raisina Dialogue 2024, India’s most important multilateral Conference on geopolitics and economics.
On Thursday, February 22, the Prime Minister departs for Mumbai, where he will hold meetings with representatives of Indian businesses and groups, while welcoming the Greek-Indian Business Forum. It is noted that a Greek business delegation is traveling to India under the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Costas Fragogiannis, as mutually beneficial cooperation and synergies between Greek and Indian businesses are sought.
Greece can be the strategic, geopolitical and commercial gateway of this important country and economy to Europe. The aim of the visit is the further strengthening and deepening of bilateral relations at all levels – with the economy, tourism, culture, foreign policy and defense at the forefront – as a follow-up to the Joint Declaration on the upgrading of Greek-Indian relations in strategies signed by Prime Ministers of Greece and India last August.
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AUTH: Under occupation again after the intervention of ELAS
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