Costas Karamanlis: The signing of the contract for E65 highway on Thursday

The contract for the northern part of the E65 highway will be signed tomorrow, as announced by the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. Costas Karamanlis, speaking to Parapolitika 90.1 FM. “A very big effort has been made in the last 23 months, we have worked intensively to unblock projects that we found “stuck”. In fact, the contract for the northern part of the E65, which is close to 442 million euros, will be signed tomorrow,” he said.

He pointed out that E65 is an emblematic project for Western Macedonia, which is directly related to the de-lignification of the region. He reminded that a great battle was fought for the country to get the final approvals from the European Commission, with the contribution of the Prime Minister himself.

Where will the first construction sites of Line 4 of the Metro be set up

Regarding Line 4 of the Metro, Mr. Karamanlis said that the first construction sites will be set up in the summer for the preliminary works in Katehaki and Alsos Veikou, at both ends of the Line. Preliminary work will take from 18 to 24 months, as it is a complex and difficult task.

Metro Line 4, approximately 13 km long, will have 15 new stations, including in Galatsi, Kypseli, in the Courts, in Exarchia, in Kolonaki, in Evangelismos (where the existing station will be expanded), in the University Campus in Zografou and Goudi.

“For us there are no sanctuaries – The design of a station in Exarcheia Square was” run ” by the SYRIZA Government”

Regarding the issue of the Exarcheia station, Mr. Karamanlis reminded that this planning was “run” by the previous Government. “For us, there are no neighborhoods in Athens that we will leave in the shadows, there are no sanctuaries”, he also stressed and added that: “In the past, those residents who had reacted to the Metro passing through their area, have been left without a metro and are banging their heads on the wall”. He brought as the most characteristic example Agia Paraskevi, where there were reactions for the construction of a Metro station in the square, with the result that today one of the largest suburbs of Athens is not served directly by the Metro.

The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport noted that there would be a temporary disruption in parts of the city from the Metro projects, but stressed that the long-term positive consequences of such an important project offset the temporary inconvenience.

He even noted that the construction of Line 4 of the Metro will use new methods such as BIM, ie a new platform that digitally captures the project before excavation begins, and that most stations will not be built from top to bottom. The aim is to reduce problems as much as possible

“We had warned about the Prespa agreement”

On the occasion of Zoran Zaev’s statements at the Euro, Mr. Karamanlis reminded that the New Democracy when it was the main opposition had warned of the great problems of the Prespa agreement such as the use of the term “Macedonian” for language and identity. He called on the Zaev government to refrain from this divisive rhetoric, even on such a sensitive issue as participating in a major international sporting event. He also said that the full and good faith implementation of the Prespa agreement by the neighboring country is a criterion for its accession process.

He even warned that if Mr. Zaev does not understand this, he may be finished. “In any case, everything is being evaluated and judged when the cooperation protocols will be ratified by the Parliament”, he stressed.

Mr. Karamanlis, however, reminded that these are trade agreements, which remain to be ratified, as the Prespa agreement has been voted on. However, he assessed that: “We can not ask Greece to comply with the agreements when the other side does not comply. For this reason, I have the impression that the Government will evaluate the attitude of Skopje, will evaluate the attitude of the Prime Minister, Mr. Zaev, and beyond that will see whether and when it should bring these agreements.”

We want a dialogue with Turkey, we are not negotiating sovereign rights

With the meeting of the Prime Minister, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the President of Turkey, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr. Karamanlis assessed that he opened a new page in the Greek-Turkish relations, recalling the tension last summer and the events in Evros. He pointed out that the Greek government showed a “diplomacy of self-confidence” towards Turkey. He also stressed that Greece has historically never denied dialogue with Turkey, recalling that the first agreement between the two countries was signed by the Karamanlis-Demirel governments in 1975.

However, he also stressed that Greece sets a very strict framework in this dialogue, ie which issues will be put on the table and which will not, and added: “What Greece has always said and the Mitsotakis government continues to say, is that we do not and we will not negotiate our sovereign rights. “