and utilities, operations in municipalities are optimising through incentives and
disincentives, local management plans are formulated by the municipalities themselves, controls are intensified, and sanctions to stop producer avoidance to pay
recycling fees are strengthened, while the Greek Recycling Organization (EOAN) is
strengthened in human resources and organisational structure, and both citizens and
municipalities are incentivised to participate in recycling.
The implementation was a disillusionment, mainly because of critical issues in
this effort of modernising. There are frictions and opposing interests both at the
different administrative levels (national, regional, local) as well as between the
public and the private sector, while there have been significant regulatory omissions
and missteps (because of the lack of regulation for recycling cooking oil, municipalities abandoned all efforts because they risked being treated as oil smugglers).
Waste management projects generating revenue, fully or even partially commercial
activities, require the control of competition rules and affecting the level of public
funding. The control over the application of state aid rules to all operations has
evolved into a deceleration factor (Mamalougkas 2019).
12.4.2 Policy Design and Implementation
Design and implementation for an encompassing environmental protection and
energy policy is under the authority of the Ministry of Environment and Energy,
while thematic ministries like the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, the
Ministry of Shipping and the Aegean and the Ministry of Health take initiatives in
the domain of their responsibilities. The Ministry of Development and Investment
plays a decisive role in its role of designing and funding incentives for R&D as well
as business investments. The major source of national funding comes from the ESIF,
organised in Sectoral Operational Programmes and Regional Operational
Programmes. In the latter case, an amount is foreseen for each region which is partly
executed at the regional level and partly at municipal level. Hence, environmental
missions are municipal, regional and national ESIF co-funded projects. Additional
support is offered by the EU competitive calls (H2020, LIFE, COSME, European
Territorial Cooperation Programmes, EIT KIC Greek Hub and NGO funded).
Policy implementation has until now not been sternly centrally monitored. This
affects the ability to systematically collect the necessary data to construct pertinent
indicators. Besides the centrally coordinated Operational Programme for Transport
Infrastructure, the Environmental and Sustainable Development has many
uncoordinated individual projects.
As pointed out in the European Semester recommendations, solid, at this stage,
waste management is the most serious challenge for environmental protection and an
opportunity for the transition to the CE. It remains heavily reliant on landfill (82%
compared to 24% on average in the EU) and mechanical-biological treatment, as
opposed to more modern techniques. Greece is at high risk of being unable to meet
the EU’s revised prevention and recycling targets (50% by 2020), as only 17% of
206
L. Tsipouri et al.
disincentives, local management plans are formulated by the municipalities themselves, controls are intensified, and sanctions to stop producer avoidance to pay
recycling fees are strengthened, while the Greek Recycling Organization (EOAN) is
strengthened in human resources and organisational structure, and both citizens and
municipalities are incentivised to participate in recycling.
The implementation was a disillusionment, mainly because of critical issues in
this effort of modernising. There are frictions and opposing interests both at the
different administrative levels (national, regional, local) as well as between the
public and the private sector, while there have been significant regulatory omissions
and missteps (because of the lack of regulation for recycling cooking oil, municipalities abandoned all efforts because they risked being treated as oil smugglers).
Waste management projects generating revenue, fully or even partially commercial
activities, require the control of competition rules and affecting the level of public
funding. The control over the application of state aid rules to all operations has
evolved into a deceleration factor (Mamalougkas 2019).
12.4.2 Policy Design and Implementation
Design and implementation for an encompassing environmental protection and
energy policy is under the authority of the Ministry of Environment and Energy,
while thematic ministries like the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, the
Ministry of Shipping and the Aegean and the Ministry of Health take initiatives in
the domain of their responsibilities. The Ministry of Development and Investment
plays a decisive role in its role of designing and funding incentives for R&D as well
as business investments. The major source of national funding comes from the ESIF,
organised in Sectoral Operational Programmes and Regional Operational
Programmes. In the latter case, an amount is foreseen for each region which is partly
executed at the regional level and partly at municipal level. Hence, environmental
missions are municipal, regional and national ESIF co-funded projects. Additional
support is offered by the EU competitive calls (H2020, LIFE, COSME, European
Territorial Cooperation Programmes, EIT KIC Greek Hub and NGO funded).
Policy implementation has until now not been sternly centrally monitored. This
affects the ability to systematically collect the necessary data to construct pertinent
indicators. Besides the centrally coordinated Operational Programme for Transport
Infrastructure, the Environmental and Sustainable Development has many
uncoordinated individual projects.
As pointed out in the European Semester recommendations, solid, at this stage,
waste management is the most serious challenge for environmental protection and an
opportunity for the transition to the CE. It remains heavily reliant on landfill (82%
compared to 24% on average in the EU) and mechanical-biological treatment, as
opposed to more modern techniques. Greece is at high risk of being unable to meet
the EU’s revised prevention and recycling targets (50% by 2020), as only 17% of
206
L. Tsipouri et al.