Elefsina Shipyards: The bill was passed in the Parliamentary Committee

With the positive vote of ruling New Democracy party, the draft law of the Ministry of Development and Investments on the “Rehabilitation of the Elefsina Shipyards and other provisions of a developmental nature” was passed during its second reading in the Production and Trade Committee and will be introduced in the Plenary for discussion and voting, on Wednesday.

SYRIZA, PASOK-KINAL and Hellenic Solution reserved their right, as in the three previous meetings of the Committee, to make their position clear in the Plenary, while communist party KKE and MeRA 25 insisted on voting against it.

“No carte blanche provided”

The Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis, upon completion of the drafting of the law in the Committee and responding to the comments of the Opposition MPs, made it clear that with this legislative initiative “no blanket authorization is provided to the Minister on the consolidation plan submitted by the investor. What is provided by this draft law is the consent of the Parliament, because it has large haircuts of debts to the State, to authorize the respective Minister of Development and Investments to represent the public as a whole for the claims that exist in Court which in the end will judge about the viability or otherwise of the Elefsina Shipyard consolidation plan submitted by the investor”.

He pointed out that in the process of the bankruptcy law, which is followed to the letter, the employees as the main creditors for their claims should go and sign their consent to this plan, otherwise the process cannot proceed. The consent of the workers proves that this reorganization plan is in their best interest, otherwise they will not consent in court. Also, in the file that the investor will submit to the court, there is a letter regarding the initial 102 million euros of financial support for the investment from the American development bank DFC. If there is no secured financing the court cannot approve a reorganization plan, this is binding by law.

Political commitment

Mr. Georgiadis stated that he has no objection and is politically bound that when the Elefsina Shipyard’s rehabilitation plan is finalized and before the filing in court, he will inform the Committee so that the Parliament will be aware of it. He reiterated that the draft law cannot include any other additional element regarding the investor’s reorganization plan, as this would torpedo the process of the bankruptcy law that has been launched and has received the first positive opinion of “DIGICOM”.

He underlined that the plan on which the Government worked was for the sustainability and development of the Shipyard not to rely exclusively on the programs of the Navy, as had been done in similar cases in the past and this led to great damage both to the Hellenic Navy and to shipyard, but to become in principle a competitive shipyard that will claim a share of the international commercial shipping market. The example of the Syros shipyard, noted Mr. Georgiadis, showed that Greek shipyards can be competitive on an international commercial level, as last year it had a turnover of 34 million euros, which compared to its size is very large.

On the expression of interest from Mr. Spanopoulos

Asked about the recent interest shown in the Elefsina Shipyards by Mr. Spanopoulos, he replied that this “manifested very late even though it had infinite opportunities, outside of the process and above all without a plan”. He noted that the process of finding an investor was started by the SYRIZA government and since then and until the completion of the public consultation of ONYX’s consolidation plan, in none of these phases, he had not expressed any interest. He noticed that in the letter that Mr. Spanopoulos has sent him, what he says is that a tender should be held, but this cannot be done because Elefsina Shipyards is a private company, so we are going with the procedures of the bankruptcy law. In order for a tender to take place, the Shipyard will have to be closed, the debts written off and therefore also the debts to the employees and we have to go to tenders with an unknown future.

The minister also mentioned that Mr. Spanopoulos asked him to give him the financial data and the consolidation plan that ONYX has paid and drawn up, something that he does not have and is not the property of the Ministry, but of the investor. Mr. Georgiadis announced that in the letter he sent yesterday to Mr. Spanopoulos, he states that “if you really want to deal with Elefsina, you should go now and collect its financial information, in order to hand us a proposal.”

The minister pointed out that there was a fruitful parliamentary dialogue in the Committee and he adopted he adopted many proposals made by the Opposition, noting that if there is a broader vote of the bill tomorrow in the Plenary, this will send a strong signal that in our country there is a constructive climate of “investment security”.

SYRIZA

The rapporteur of SYRIZA, Haris Mamoulakis, stated that we raised six issues regarding the bill for the revival of the Elefsina Shipyards, receiving some answers, some of which were convincing and others less convincing. However, the three are points where the answers are still not sufficiently convincing and these are the labor issues where there is no commitment to stable and full-time jobs. That in the company’s business plan there is no indicative list of investments that the investor intends to make. And that this is a sui generis legislative initiative, which in our view has many vulnerable and precarious points, as it does not capture the content, the central core of the final creditor agreement and does not provide the necessary legal certainty.

PASOK-KINAL

The special PASOK-KINAL rapporteur, Apostolos Panas, said that “we say YES to the rehabilitation and re-operation of the Shipyard, which is absolutely necessary and is a central goal of our policy. However, the resolution plan needs to meet certain conditions and we will not back down on this. That is, to be sustainable, to serve the public interest, to ensure the payment of accruals and compensations to employees in a reasonable time, as well as to secure jobs and the collective labor agreement. That’s why we insisted that our proposals be incorporated to meet the schedule for the payment of accruals as agreed in the bilateral workers’ agreement.

To confirm the commitment of the potential new employer that he will rehire the workers in the event of the reopening of the shipyards with an explicit reference to the encouragement and initiation of collective negotiations with the aim of concluding a collective agreement and to also provide that beyond the indicative schedule for the payment of the142 million euros due, the Ministry of Defense fully reserves the right to seek its improvement for the benefit of the State during the process of assigning large equipment programs to the new companies.

Communist Party – KKE

KKE special rapporteur, Diamanto Manolakos, expressed her opposition to the bill, arguing that the alleged plan for the reorganization of the Shipyard is cut and sewn to fit the investor, with challenging arrangements for exemptions and privileges, with the cancellation of debts to the State and Funds that arrive almost 100%. This is a project that will serve NATO’s shipbuilding and repair needs with money from the Greek people. He emphasized that there is no commitment to rehire the workers with their current rights.

Hellenic Solution

The special rapporteur of Hellenic Solution, Vassilis Viliardos, argued that with this bill the minister is asking the Parliament for a blank check and the no-chaser for a matter that concerns public money, that is, the cancellation of a large part of the Navy’s obligations of taxes and other debts Shipyard to the State. Here, said the MP, we do not have the agreement of the Ministry of Defense regarding the cancellation of the Shipyard’s debts to the Hellenic Navy. We also do not even have a verbal commitment to the €102 million that the investor says DFC will invest. He asked for the minutes of the September 2021 consultation with the workers, as well as the strategic business plan, where the investment plan of the investor can be seen, as well as the budget for future income, expenses and investments.

Mera25

The special rapporteur of MeRA 25, Kriton Arsenis voted against the bill saying that it is an investment that opposes the public interest from every point of view. It is tailored to fit the new owner who completely excludes the workers. The consent of the workers has been usurped through the pressures they received. With this agreement, the employees of the Ministry of Defense fear that they will be prosecuted for disloyalty. Debts to the Greek State are written off, i.e. we have a complete looting of the State’s property.