Greece

Basic information

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Mechanisms of Vertical Integration

National — sub-national linkages

For the preparation of the current NSDS, representatives of local authorities participated in general or thematic workshops. However, sub-national levels were only indirectly involved in the implementation through the Habitat Agenda in which 48 municipalities participated. 

Apart from that, experiences with the involvement of sub-national levels in NSDS processes are limited. One major reason for this is that a lot of sub-national entities were only created some 10 years ago and, therefore, lack personnel resources and capacities. Some coordination exists in the five-year development programme for local administrations, called “Thesseus”, for which the Ministry of Interior is responsible. The objective of the programme is to coordinate the specific roles for local administrations, particularly focusing on infrastructure for the environment (e.g. water supply and sewage, waste management, etc). The programme is governed by the principles of LA 21. However, no clear link to the NSDS exists.

In the preparation of the revised NSDS, sub-national levels were invited to submit ideas for the new NSDS. However, only two regions respond. The reporting cycle of the revised NSDS will include provisions for sub-national levels to report on their implementation efforts. Through this, a stronger link between national objectives and sub-national activities should be established.

EU linkages

The renewed EU Strategy for Sustainable Development (EU SDS) that was adopted in June 2006 foresees that Member States bi-annually report about how they address the priorities of the EU SDS. Greece has published its first national report on implementing the EU SDS in August 2007.

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Mechanisms of Horizontal Integration

Nine ministries participated in the ‘National Coordination Committee of the Government Policy in the field of Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development’. Inter-Ministerial coordination was strengthened for the drafting of the National Strategic Reference Framework (2007- 2013) in which the principles of the NSDS were included to a large extend.

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Evaluation and Review

Currently a review process of the NSDS 2002 is organised. Almost all ministries and several societal groups are involved in this review process since the beginning. The revised NSDS will include all the priorities of the EU SDS. However, there will be additional chapters to reflect the Greek context, e.g. agriculture, tourism, culture and physical planning. Moreover, a two-year progress reporting cycle will be introduced which will also comprise reports on implementation efforts on the sub-national levels.

Additionally, certain reporting activities about the progress of SD have been undertaken. In 2004, Greece has compiled a country profile as part of the national reporting initiated by Commission on SD of the United Nations (UN CSD 12). It has chapters on freshwater, sanitation and human settlements. In 2005, a progress report about Greece was issued within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. This report, though, focuses mainly on environmental issues, e.g. waste, water resources, coastal zones, etc.

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Indicators and Monitoring

In 2003, a preliminary set of 70 SD indicators was presented in the report 'Environmental signals'. However, as the indicators were a proposal and not all of them measurable, the implementation of the NSDS was never monitored and the indicators were not used nor expanded to cover all the strategy’s objectives. A new set of indicators is intended to be elaborated (under the responsibility of the National Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development, in close co-operation with the National Statistics Service) which will take into account the SD indicator set by Eurostat and the needs of reporting for the renewed NSDS.

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Participation

The ‘National Council for Physical Planning and Sustainable Development’ was established with members coming from the Ministry of Environment, local authorities, employers’ and trade unions, research institutes and NGOs participated. However, the coordination between institutions is rather weak and on an ad-hoc basis. The Council is now being activated in order to follow up on the implementation of the revised NSDS.

Different stakeholder groups were invited to participate in two public consultation phases during the drafting of the revised NSDS.

For a detailed documentation of all advisory and participatory councils (for SD and/or the environment) in this country, please go to the EEAC website at http://www.eeac-net.org/bodies/greece/greece_frame.htm and click on one of the listed institutions.

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Sub-national activities

This is a link to the promotion of the Habitat Agenda at the national and local level in Greece.

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This Country Profile has been last updated on: Friday, 05 December 2008

For the sources used in the country profiles, please click here.