Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-02-02

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] 'Greener' policy for PASOK

[01] 'Greener' policy for PASOK

"We bring green into this grey landscape inhabited by the Greek people," Papandreou said at the gathering organised by the Local Authority Network of the PASOK Conference central organisational committee in conjunction with the local government Movement of the Local Union of Municipalities and Communities of the Attica Prefecture (TEDKNA).

Papandreou said that green spaces and protection of the environment had now become a dominant issue on a Europe-wide level. He slammed the policy of the present government, both in general and on environmental issues, as being essentially summed up in the phrase "concrete everywhere".

He called on the government to "wake from the torpor of environmental insensitivity" and accused it of treating environmental issues in the same way that it treated current affairs, with the foremost concern being to benefit the party and serve the interests of a favoured few.

According to PASOK's president, the country was undergoing a political crisis that threatened to engulf the political system in a quagmire, while he accused the government of trying to cover up the truth about a string of alleged scandals currently occupied the headlines.

Papandreou referred to a green economy and stressed that this was a new economic theory that was also a way out for the country, underlining that PASOK had the political will to make the necessary changes.

He further accused the government of lying about environmental issues and claimed that Greece was an environmental straggler in the EU because the government lacked a plan for renewable energy sources and was handing out licences at will.

On a more local level, he underlined the need to preserve open spaces within Athens, saying that the government's policy of selling off land was further undermining quality of life in the capital, and emphasised that the former airport at Elliniko must be converted into a major metropolitan park.

In other parts of his speech, PASOK's leader underlined the importance given to local government's role by his party and hailed the adoption of PASOK's proposal for the future structure of local government by the conferences of the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities of Greece (KEDKE), by TEDKNA and by the Union of Prefecture Authorities of Greece (ENAE).

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