With the autumn coming and following the recommendation of the supervisory triad, the government plans to merge state-owned companies of the city train (ISAP), metro (AMEL) and trams management company in the capital in one. Commissioners of the mission of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank continued their examination of the Greek ministries. After their visit to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, commissioners gave a proposal for merger of transport companies that manage the buses and trolleys. The result will be a maximum cost optimization in public transport companies, which recorded a large deficit in recent years.
Common carriers have a total deficit of € 2.5 billion, and the state debt to those companies is € 400 million. Anonymous sources from the Ministry of Transport said that despite the upcoming merger, the government has no intention to cut the staff in these companies.
In the transport sector in Greece, however, the state railway company remains the one with the largest deficit of around one billion euros per year. Currently, representatives of the Ministry are preparing the plan for rehabilitation of railways. The plan should be submitted for public comment until Friday this week. The state railways owe over € 10 billion at present. € 7.5 billion of them are loans taken over the years to improve rail infrastructure in the country. Transport Minister Dimitris Repas said the rescue plan will inevitably include cuts in the number of passenger lines and in the number of employees.
Commissioners also discussed the issue of market liberalization in the country. Their advice to the government was to define a common legal framework for the liberalization of closed professions. After adoption, the law must be applied to all occupations, which until now have limited the number of companies/individuals in the relevant sector.
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