Daily Archives: January 31, 2014

A partial view of Piraeus port, one of the largest ports in Europe.

It is the largest passenger port in Europe and the fourth largest commercial port in the Mediterranean Sea.

Piraeus Container Terminal (SEP), the local subsidiary of China’s Cosco, handled 2.52 million twenty-foot equivalent units (teu) at terminals II and III in the port of Piraeus in 2013. When that is added to the 644,000 containers handled at Terminal I, operated by Piraeus Port Authority (OLP), Greece’s biggest port handled a total of over 3.16 million containers last year.
SEP posted a 20 per cent increase last year, on top of the massive 77 per cent rise recorded in 2012. The dock operated by OLP only registered a 3 per cent increase within the last year.
Once Cosco’s new investment at the western section of Terminal III is completed, the capacity of the whole of Piraeus port will grow from a current annual 4.2 million teu to 6.2 million teu, with experts forecasting that Piraeus could become the biggest commercial port in the Mediterranean by 2016. In 2012 Piraeus ranked fourth, with Valencia in first place, handling 4.46 million teu. Another Spanish port, Algeciras, was in second and Turkey’s Ambarli in third.
The proximity of Piraeus to the Suez Canal, which is the point of entry for Asian products to Europe, and its rail interconnection with the national and continental networks, saves some six days for products on their way to Central Europe, making it the gateway of choice for Asian trade.
A second comparative advantage for Piraeus is its car terminal, which is already showing major growth. The Mediterranean is a key European entry point for vehicles from Japan, South Korea and India, so Piraeus is a top-choice transit centre for cars, too, while European Union car imports from Japan through the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea are on the rise.
On the other hand, passenger traffic in the port of Piraeus fell to 17,670,000 passengers in 2013, from 17,980,000 in 2012, although passenger traffic in the sea cruise sector jumped 11.1 per cent to 2,296,000 departure-arrivals from 2,067,000 in 2012, according to official figures released this week.
According to the report by the Piraeus Port Organisation, passenger traffic in the coastal shipping sector (Aegean sea lines) totalled 5,741,167 passengers, while passenger traffic in Argosaronic Gulf was 1,856,519 passengers.
George Anomeritis, chairman and chief executive of Piraeus Port Organisation, commenting on the report said that despite a small deviation of figures “the port of Piraeus remains Europe’s largest passenger port”.
Sources: ekathimerini, capital

Faced with a resurgence in urban guerrilla activity, the government unveiled plans to overhaul the Greek Police (ELAS)

Faced with a resurgence in urban guerrilla activity, the government unveiled plans to overhaul the Greek Police (ELAS) in a bid to improve patrols and cut spending.

During an Athens press briefing, Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said the aim of the authorities is to reduce the force’s response time by up to 25 percent and to bring Greek officials’ performance ratings up to the same level as the European Union average.

The bill, which was tabled in Parliament Wednesday, foresees the scrapping of about 6,700 permanent posts, which are currently vacant, as well as the merging of ELAS’s surplus administrative departments. The move is expected to cut their number almost in half, from 120 to 68. With the exception of the Attica and Thessaloniki prefectures, the remaining 52 police directorates will be substituted by the 12 regional directorates.

According to the blueprint, ELAS will be split into three autonomous bureaus that will be responsible for order, security and immigration-related issues. The Order Branch will include the departments of the general police, traffic police and the newly established citizen service and municipal police. The Security Branch, dubbed by Dendias as “the Greek FBI,” will absorb the anti-terrorism squad, the cyber-crimes department and the police’s crime intelligence unit. Finally, the Aliens Branch will bring together border police and illegal immigration prevention units.

The New Democracy minister said that the revamp will not affect the budget, adding that the government hopes to attract funds from the subsidies program of the National Strategic Reference Framework (ESPA).

During the press briefing, Dendias confirmed an earlier report in Kathimerini that ELAS is working with US and British intelligence services in order to track down and arrest November 17 member and fugitive Christodoulos Xeros. Xeros, who was serving six life sentences in the maximum-security Korydallos Prison in Athens for killing American and British operatives, disappeared earlier this month after failing to check in with local authorities during an approved holiday furlough.

After recent developments, Dendias said “requests for police protection are coming in waves.”

Source: Kathimerini

Backlog in courts may lead to release of suspects from pretrial custody.

A growing backlog in the country’s courts is likely to result in a large number of potentially dangerous suspects being released from pretrial custody, according to the head of the national union of judges and prosecutors.

Briefing a parliamentary committee, Vassiliki Thanou warned that suspects completing the 18-month maximum mandated period in custody pending trial are likely to be released in the coming months as a deepening backlog means their cases are unlikely to come to trial in the next year.

According to data submitted by Thanou in Parliament, the number of cases submitted to Greek magistrates more than doubled between 2008 and 2010, from 4,000 to 8,500. Meanwhile more than half a million cases are already pending in the country’s courts, Thanou said, noting that the backlog is also depriving the state of much-needed revenue. Pending trials for tax evasion alone could raise 1.5 billion euros if they were to proceed, she said.

Although Thanou did not specify which suspects are likely to benefit from early release from custody, she was broadly understood to be referring to lawmakers of the neofascist Golden Dawn who have been detained as part of an investigation into whether the party operated as a criminal organization as well as suspected members of guerrilla groups, notably Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire. Concerns about the release of members of the latter group are particularly pressing following reports that November 17 convict Christodoulos Xeros met regularly with them at Korydallos Prison before he absconded during a furlough earlier this month.

Police have stepped up a search for the 55-year-old convict after he appeared in an online video last week threatening to return to terrorist activity in protest at the social repercussions of an ongoing austerity drive in Greece.

Police arrested four suspects on Wednesday following raids on apartments in Athens and Thessaloniki that turned up flares, knives and a sledgehammer. One suspect was arrested in the capital and the other three in the northern port city, bringing to nine the number of people detained in connection with the manhunt.

Source: Kathimerini

The Greek PM discusses high cost of natural gas and Russia’s interest in the sale of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) and Thessaloniki port.

A meeting between Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Russian President Vladimir Putin – their first in more than two years – presented the Greek leader with a chance to discuss the high cost of natural gas and to reaffirm interest from Russia in the sale of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) and Thessaloniki port.

The two men met in Brussels after Samaras addressed a Business Europe conference and Putin had met with European Union officials.

The cost of natural gas was a key item on the agenda of talks between Samaras and Putin as the meeting came amid discussions between Russian gas giant Gazprom and Greece’s Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) about the same issue. The Greek government is thought to have ordered DEPA officials to reject any price of more than $400 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Sources said that Putin did not make any binding commitments on the matter but indicated that he would examine the issue. In his comments after the meeting, Samaras drove home the point that Greece could not afford to keep paying natural gas prices that are about 30 percent above the European average. “My country is currently coming out of a six-year recession and low energy prices from Russia are crucial to our recovery,” he said.

On the issue of OSE, Putin made it known that there is Russian interest and asked whether Athens would be able to package the railways and Thessaloniki port into a single privatization tender. The government, however, will be unable to comply with this request.

Samaras extended an invitation to Putin to make an official visit to Greece soon.

Meanwhile in Athens leftist SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras lashed out at the imposition of austerity reforms over the past few years, claiming that the troika-imposed measures violated the Greek Constitution. “For three years now, the Constitution and the procedures that it dictates have been violated, on the orders of our lenders,” Tsipras said after talks with Sotiris Rizos, the president of the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court.

Tsipras subsequently met with Eleni Raikou, the capital’s top corruption prosecutor, for a briefing on the progress of the graft probes she is overseeing. “Whoever stole public money must return it,” he said.

Source: Kathimerini