Apr 05 2021
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Open letter about the Greek Recovery and Resilience Plan: opacity and lack of participation

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Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal participates in the initiative COMMON GROUND connecting for social change, together with a number of civil society’sorganisations 

Over the past few weeks, we have been busy organizing an initiative to express civil society’s collective dismay and concern about being left out of the design and implementation of Greece’s COVID-19 recovery plan. 

Greece will receive €32 billion from the EU in a combination of grants and loans. We must ensure that this substantial amount of money is not wasted on ineffective or exclusive policies, but rather goes toward meeting the needs of all people living in Greece, especially those in greatest need of support. In other words, spending must prioritize green and socially just initiatives.

We’ve heard lots of rhetoric from the EU and the Greek government about how these funds will grow the economy, improve society, fight climate change, and improve resilience so we can weather the next storm, whether it comes in the form of another pandemic or something else. But how will this money actually be spent? Will it simply pay lip service to these noble goals or will it really transform society’s underlying problems and structural flaws that have led us into the current mess? 

In this spirit, we and Greenpeace have submitted an open letter to Deputy Finance Minister Skylakakis, co-signed by 70+ of our civil society peers, including many of you reading this. Our demands are clear: don’t leave us out of the process of designing the recovery initiatives because we, the people on the ground working with and representing some of society’s most vulnerable communities, understand Greece’s needs and we have thoughtful, detailed proposals on how we can meet them. Our input will not only strengthen the plan’s proposals but will also generate public buy-in, which is crucial to the plan’s success. We also insist on full transparency and accountability.

With the EU deadline looming, we understood that time was running out for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to benefit from civil society’s valuable insights. Accordingly, last week on March 23rd, we and Greenpeace submitted an open letter to Deputy Finance Minister Mr. Skylakakis demanding meaningful opportunities to contribute to the recovery plan.

We have still not received a response. And yet, a few days later, the Greek cabinet approved a final version of the plan, announced it publically, and is expected to submit it to parliament this week before sending it to Brussels for approval. This leaves no time for us or Greek MPs to give feedback on the plan’s content and strategic directions (it’s hefty, at an estimated 2,000 pages!) But we are not giving up! There is still time to act.

Opne letter to Depute Finance Minister Mr Skylakakis and Prime Minister Mr Mitsotakis 

To Deputy Minister of Finance, Theodoros Skylakakis

CC: Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

       Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras

       The European Commission Recovery and Resilience Task Force (RECOVER)

Athens, Tuesday 23rd March 2021

Open letter about the Greek Recovery and Resilience Plan: opacity and lack of participation

Dear Mr. Minister,

The signatory Civil Society Organisations would like to express our concerns about the opacity in the design and adoption of the Greek Recovery and Resilience Plan. The EU recovery plan is a huge opportunity for member states to address the economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and to create greener and fairer societies that are resilient to future challenges. At this critical time when the pandemic is affecting millions of lives and especially the most vulnerable populations, it is very important that such an opportunity is not missed.

The absence of broad social participation in the formulation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan worries us intensely. We recall that under Article 18.4 (q) of the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation, member states must include “a summary of the consultation process carried out with local and regional authorities, social partners, civil society organisations, youth organisations and other relevant stakeholders for the preparation and implementation of the plan and information on how the input of stakeholders is reflected in the plan.”

So far however, planning procedures for the Recovery and Resilience Plan have starkly contrasted the spirit of this regulation. More specifically:

  1. The virtual public consultation on the “Strategic Directions of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan” posted by the Ministry of Finance on 25 November 2020 consisted only of a general text with unclear terms and lacked a roadmap for implementation. As such, it is impossible for interested parties to thoroughly evaluate the proposal since the complete draft submitted by Greece to the European Commission has not been made publicly available. 
  2. Greece sent the draft Recovery and Resilience Plan to the European Commission before the end of the public consultation period, thus it excluded the feedback submitted by civil society during the consultation process. 
  3. The public consultation report has not been published and we have not received any information on if and how the proposals we submitted were taken into account in revising the plan, when the revisions will be complete, or what the next steps will be. 
  4. We remain in the dark regarding procedures for submitting the final draft to the EU as well as whether stakeholders will be given the opportunity to provide feedback on the final text, which will outline how resources will be allocated. We are concerned that submitting the final plan for public consultation only at the end of the revision process will exclude Greek society from substantially contributing to the plan’s development. 

For all the above reasons, we respectfully insist on full transparency regarding the development of sustainable recovery policies, both for the sake of monitoring and accountability and in order to keep the citizenry informed, which are essential for their successful implementation.

Mr. Minister, the recent crises (economic, refugee, pandemic) have deepened social inequalities in our country and require us to make radical changes to mitigate their effects on society. Greece should prioritise social inclusion by targeting typically overlooked populations such as impoverished households, the homeless, migrants, and refugees. The country also needs to invest in stronger social and labour policies and in public health with an emphasis on prevention, education and culture. The digital transition is an essential tool for achieving these goals. At the same time, measures must be taken to protect the environment and reduce the effects of climate change in order to prevent future crises and ensure a swift transition to a green and just economy.  

To do this, the Greek government must:

  • Invite broader swaths of society, and in particular civil society with relevant knowledge and experience, to submit proposals that will be integrated into the “Strategic Directions of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan”
  • Prepare a detailed action plan outlining proposed programmes, objectives, beneficiaries and expected impact, which includes valid environmental, social and economic indicators to assess the projects’ progress based on the stated priorities. All programmes and objectives must meet the following criteria: 

-Ensure a sustainable future 

-Contribute to social justice 

-Safeguard our fundamental rights

  • Ensure a meaningful participation of all stakeholders, including civil society organisations, in the design, implementation and monitoring of the Recovery and Resilience Plan. This process must take place before the government submits its plan at the end of April 2021
  • Improve clarity and transparency around the Recovery and Resilience Plan. This includes publicising available funding instruments and outlining priorities at both the EU and national levels.  Regular information exchange sessions with stakeholders and citizen information campaigns are also necessary, among other things.

We consider the above measures necessary not only for the proper use of available public resources but also in order to garner citizen support for the initiative. Finally, we emphasise that for the Recovery and Resilience Plan to have a positive effect, it should not be seen as a stand-alone initiative. Rather, it should constitute part of a horizontal and coordinated effort to strengthen public policies that, combined with other initiatives and funding opportunities, will lead us to a better and more sustainable future. Policies and programmes that do not align with the plan but lead us astray from strategic objectives agreed upon by the EU, must be ruled out or redesigned in a manner that supports a green and fair recovery.

We remain at your disposal for any discussion and contribution to the formulation of a national recovery plan that reflects Greece’s real needs for a sustainable and socially just future.

Yours sincerely,

The undersigned organisations

  1. ActionAid Hellas
  2. Action for Wildlife
  3. ANTIGONE – Information and Documentation Centre on Racism, Ecology, Peace and Non Violence
  4. Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation
  5. Arion – Cetacean Rescue and Rehabilitation Research Center
  6. ARSIS – Association for the Social Support Youth
  7. Association of Social Responsibility for Children and Youth -Skep 
  8. Attica Bike Community – Podilattiki Koinotita
  9. Better Days Greece
  10. Boroume
  11. Callisto
  12. Centre for Research on Women’s Issues “Diotima”
  13. Changemakers Lab
  14. Common Ground Greece
  15. Doctors of the World Greece 
  16. DRC Greece
  17. ECHO100PLUS
  18. Ecocity
  19. Ecological Movement of Drama
  20. Ecological Movement of Patras
  21. Ecological Movement of Thessaloniki
  22. Ecological Recycling Society
  23. ELIX
  24. Emfasis Foundation
  25. Ethelon
  26. European Expression 
  27. Fenix – Humanitarian Legal Aid
  28. Food On 
  29. Friends of Monte
  30. Generation 2.0 for Rights, Equality and Diversity
  31. GIVMED 
  32. Greek Association of People Living with HIV “Positive Voice”
  33. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
  34. Greek Forum of Migrants
  35. Greek Forum of Refugees
  36. Greek Housing Network
  37. Greenpeace Greece
  38. Hellenic Liver Patient Association “Prometheus”
  39. HIAS
  40. HIGGS
  41. HumanRights360
  42. International Rescue Committee (IRC)
  43. Irida Women’s Center
  44. iSEA
  45. Ithaca
  46. Ithaca Laundry
  47. Lesvos Solidarity 
  48. MEDASSET
  49. Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos – MedINA
  50. Melissa Network
  51. METAdrasi – Action for Migration and Development
  52. Mobile Info Team (MIT)
  53. Nature Friends Greece
  54. Network for Children’s Rights
  55. NPCP “Me Alla Matia”
  56. Odyssea
  57. Organization Earth
  58. Organization Tulipa Gulimi
  59. Pan-hellenic Network of Ecological Organizations
  60. People Behind
  61. Praksis
  62. Promitheas  
  63. Refugee Rights Europe
  64. Samos Volunteers
  65. Schedia Street Magazine
  66. Social Action and Innovation Center
  67. Society for the Care of Minors and Youth
  68. SolidarityNow
  69. SOS Children’s Villages
  70. Steps
  71. Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network of Schools
  72. Syn-eirmos NGO of Social Solidarity
  73. Terre des hommes Hellas
  74. Thalassa of Solidarity
  75. The Bee Camp
  76. The Good House
  77. The Green Tank
  78. The HOME Project
  79. Union for the Protection of the Environment of the Corinthian-Patra Gulf – O Nireas
  80. Velos Youth
  81. We are Solomon
  82. Wind of Renewal
  83. WWF Greece

CALL TO ACTION!

Follow our suggestions, or invent your own action:

  • Inform parliamentarians (all of them or selected ones) that civil society was excluded from all stages of developing the National Recovery Plan and that this is not okay.  Call them, email them, use social media, and even fax them!
  • Email Deputy Finance Minister Skylakakis demanding full transparency and to be involved in the subsequent phases of the recovery plan.
  • Tell Prime Minister Mitsotakis that exclusion is not an option! Explain that a green and just recovery requires transparency and inclusive participation.
  • Encourage your peers, colleagues, donors, friends, partners, members, etc. to do the same in their individual capacities. We must all be well-informed, active citizens and make clear to our government that we are following developments closely and will hold them accountable.
Whatever action you chose to take, please do it quickly as time is of the essence! And please keep us informed of your efforts and any responses you receive.
Read the press release, including the list of co-signatories, and read the full text of our open letter in Greek or English.
In Solidarity,
The Common Ground Team
Apr 04 2021
2

WELCOMMON HOSTEL, an EXTRAORDINARY Sustainable Hostel

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The WELCOMMON HOSTEL is a seven-floor facility building in the center of Athens that offers accommodation for people of all ages and places, a hostel for sustainable tourism, a proposal for accommodation of social, cultural and environmental active groups and persons during their stay in Athens. Our moto is “sleep for dreaming, be active for cultural, social and environmental /climate issues”. The WELCOMMON HOSTEL is run by the social cooperative Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal, established in 2014 for the promotion of social and green innovation, sustainable tourism, environmental and climate potection, energy transition, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue.

The WELCOMMON Hostel is something more than just a nice hostel with social impact. It is also a place for social gathering and experiment, a center for innovation and art, as well as a centre for social and green innovation and economy, for social and job integration for Greek locals, migrants and refugees. 

Five floors of the seven storey building can provide accommodation to up to 150 people. Our guests have a variety of options for accommodation in the WELCOMMON HOSTEL: a four or eight-bed dormitory, a five-bed room, a four-bed room, a three-bed room, a twin or double bed room or a single. Regardless of what they select, all rooms are comfortable, clean and attractive; a lot has been artistically designed with reused items, always with the comfort of our guests in mind.

Two floors of the Welcommon Hostel are dedicated to our social, cultural and green activities, providing opportunities to guests, international volunteers and refugees to collaborate and learn together.

Special place, people, values

Our guests are all different travellers (tourists, volunteers, erasmus students, nomads-workers, newcomers, refugees). Our vision is to bring close people from all over the world without discrimination, to enable them to communicate, to be entertained and to explore the creative side of Athens. Our guests have the opportunity to participate directly and indirectly in green, social, humanitarian and inclusive – intercultural projects, events and activities. They can also contribute with their ideas and experience. WELCOMMON Hostel means welcome in common – together.

In the WELCOMMON Hostel we can introduce our guests to the world of Greece’s cultural, environmental and social organizations as well as of social economy. We can connect them with the creative side of the city and social organisations, we can inform them about the situation of social economy, climate movement or  refugees in our country. And, they can play music in our bar.

We are a bicycle-friendly hostel and our guests can leave their bicycle …at the reception during their stay or they can rent a bicycle for a city tour. All the hostel is accessible to disable persons but there is also a special designed room for 3-4 disable persons.

The hostel highlights the positive impact that sustainable tourism – and cooperatives and social enterprises – have on communities, revitalizing neighborhoods, making bridges between communities, social groups, newcomers and local people.

Supporting the local economy, contributing to environmental sustainability

We contributed to the revitalization of the neighborhood during the financial crisis period (2016-2021) and we continue to support the local economy with social and green procurement, reduction of single use plastics and with a zero-waste strategy. We have recently published the results of our green renovation that had a major impact on hostel’s performance. We managed not only to reduce the building’s electrical consumption and use renewable energy, but also to minimize greenhouse gas emissions produced by fossil fuels. 

We apply a waste minimizing system, especially reducing one-way plastics, increasing seperation at source and recycling, while the whole WELCOMMON HOSTEL was based on a rational upcycling and re-use, which is actually an example of how we can combine reuse with high quality aesthetic effect and functionality. We have signed and are implementatimg the INTERNATIONAL TOURISM PLASTIC PLEDGE 

A hostel with social impact

Since its launch, we have successfully provided accommodation for more than 1500 kids, teens and adults and 330 volunteers, who have participated in intercultural courses and activities for refugees and migrants. We offer classes (e.g. for language, painting, puppet show, music etc) with the support of volunteers to refugees, migrants, local people, tourists; we work for the empowerment and training of our guests and design interactive workshops for the professional training and promotion of the abilities and qualifications of refugees, especially the young persons, along with Greek nationals, in order to be able to find their way in our societies for the benefit of our societies.

We are very proud that our social cooperative enterprise ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL has received 5 European-level distinctions for our innovation and contribution to the social economy. It is a great honor for Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal to have been awarded the European Citizen’s Prize on 9th of October 2018, in the European Parliament. HOSTEL WORLD named our WELCOMMON HOSTEL as one of the Hostel Heroes, “a hostel that in the midst of the crisis is supporting the community coming together… building a better world!”

Lastly, we are thrilled to announce that our WELCOMMON HOSTEL was distinguished as the best social / intercultural action of the year in Greece during covid-19; the competition was organized by the national network of “Anna Lindh Foundation“, the euro-med network for the intercultural dialogue. As of June 2020, even the sustainable tourism collapsed and at the same time thousands of recognized refugees and asylum seekers in Greece were left homeless in the midst of a global pandemic, therefore we decided to host a number of refugees, the most vulnerable between them, such as survivors of sexual violence, torture and ill treatment, the elderly, people with chronic diseases, pregnants and mothers with new borned babies. The vision for the Welcommon Hostel, was to be a sustainable solution to host all the travellers. If you’ve ever come into the Welcommon you probably felt that it is a special place, a place where you can meet people, learn from them… it is a community. Special place, people, values.

Nowadays, our world is transforming at a staggering pace, impacting the space, physical and man-made, we live and work, for better and at times for worse. Athens, in particular, where our hostel is located, is a city in crisis but at the same time one can see a real change if one decides to be part of the social and ecological change. We have decided to be part of this social and green transition.

We want to be financially, socially and environmental sustainable

The first step is crucial: we want to be financially and socially sustainable. Sustainability has to do also with the economic aspect of an enterprise, company or household. As a cooperative we don’t share profits, if there is we invest it in new jobs, social, climate and green activities. The WELCOMMON HOSTEL aims to cover with the generated income, the operation of the hostel, the creation of new jobs in innovation, climate projects and the cost of services offered to a number of refugees aiming at their housing, social inclusion,  and non-formal education. Everyday, we make an effort to improve our services,  make our hostel more convenient, friendly and live, more artistic and social, inspiring at the same time our staff, volunteers, guests and visitors to get involved and adopt a more responsible and sustainable way of traveling and living.

The day after

The next step is also very important to us; we are committed to support the transition to an energy-efficient and green economy, in creating a new center for eco-friendly projects and practices; we also aim to contribute to reducing the energy poverty of households, offering them know-how and support so that they can exit a difficult situation through social empowerment and energy efficiency.

    Sustainable Practices and impacts                  

In the Welcommon Hostel there is an installation of 20 solar panels for the production of hot water for shower and domestic use. It is a fact that the production of hot water is a major source of energy-consumption and economic duty of accommodation buildings and the ways of producing it most of the time is related to use of fossil fuels, a practice that is environmentally damaging. This is why, faithful to our purpose of creating a sustainable and environmental fair society, we chose an alternative source of energy to adapt the need of hot water to a carbon-free practice. (see infographic)

– Another measure implemented in the hostel is the use of LED lighting lamps, which might seem like a minimum expense for a household, but for a 7-story building with more than 10 rooms/story, plus the corridors, staircases, storage rooms etc. with  lighting needs ended up to be a significant investment. However the result for this investment was also significant and it is well portrayed in the electric bills afterwards. (see infographic)

–

The WELCOMMON Hostel have been designed as an open center for social inclusion, green transition and green – social jobs for young people. The aim is to create new employment opportunities for everyone in areas such as sustainable tourism, up-cycling,  green / cyclic economy, energy efficiency and others.

A large number of projects have been and still are realized regarding green transition and the Welcommon Hostel provides the premises and work-space to take on these initiatives.

– Moreover Welcommon Hostel is a physical space that welcomes every social, cultural and environmental active group to do their meetings, lectures, presentations or conferences to contribute actively to the dissemination of eco-friendly ideas.

Another action is the effort we undertook in 2017-2020 to promote climate action and energy efficiency in schools, provide a basic training  of  educators as well as pupils, in order to raise awareness about the climate challenge not only inside the strict boundaries of the hostel and its visitors but also in the wider society. 

Realised projects :

a) EUKI- CLIMATE SCHOOLS Be.Ath, a European Climate Initiative (EUKI ) program 2017-2020

b)  EUKI-YESClima: Young energy experts working for climate-friendly schools and energy efficiency“, a European Climate Initiative (EUKI) program 2018-2020.

c) EUKI-ZEWklima: ZEWKlima – Future Opportunities in Energy Transition in Southern Europe

and many events, seminars and workshops on energy transition, climate protection, energy cooperatives.

 

 

 

 

Mar 23 2021
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Civil society demands that Greece’s Recovery Plan prioritises making society greener and fairer

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70 civil society organisations co-signed an open letter to the Deputy Minister of Finance, Theodoros Skylakakis, initiated by Common Ground and Greenpeace, outlining their priorities for a green and just recovery and seeking more public involvement in developing policies

ATHENS, 23 March 2021 – Greece, like all other member states, has until the end of April to submit a plan to the EU outlining how it will spend the €32 billion it will receive in recovery funds to overcome the effects of the pandemic. Civil society recognises this as an unprecedented opportunity for a truly just, inclusive, and sustainable transition and seeks transparency in the planning process.

So far, civil society has been largely left out of the process and kept in the dark, despite hopes that it would be inclusive and transparent. “It is vital to have full transparency for the sake of monitoring and accountability and in order to keep the citizenry informed, which is essential for the recovery” says Common Ground spokesperson, Dominika Spyratou.

Given that recent crises (economic, refugee reception, pandemic) have deepened social inequalities in Greece, the signatories contend that recovery policies should target typically overlooked populations such as impoverished households, the homeless, migrants, and refugees. At the same time, they call for policies that prioritise protecting the environment and reducing the effects of climate change in order to ensure a sustainable future and stave off future disasters and displacement.

“On the one hand, we face a pandemic, the collapse of biodiversity, the climate crisis, and increasing social inequalities. On the other hand, we have an opportunity to use the Recovery Fund to protect our health, biodiversity, the planet and to promote social justice not just to pre- pandemic levels, but to make our society stronger, healthier, and more cohesive than ever.

Threat and opportunity,” says Nikos Charalambidis, Director of Greenpeace Greece. Common Ground and the letter’s co-signers urge the Greek government to:

● Invite the public, and in particular civil society, to submit their proposals for spending the recovery funds before the government submits its final plan in April and ensure their meaningful participation in the plan’s design, implementation and monitoring.

● Prepare a detailed action plan detailing proposed programmes, objectives, beneficiaries and expected impact, which includes valid environmental, social and economic indicators.
● Improve clarity and transparency around the process, including regular information exchange sessions with stakeholders and public awareness campaigns.

Why it matters: If the above mentioned measures are implemented as part of a coordinated effort combined with other initiatives and funding opportunities to strengthen public policies, it will lead Greece out of the pandemic and toward a more just and sustainable future.

After years of austerity, the refugee reception crisis and now the pandemic, this large sum of money can enable society to turn a corner and start truly recovering from economic and social problems. To succeed, Greece must avoid repeating the policies of the past that led us to the difficult position we are in today (confronting rising inequalities, polarisation, injustice, biodiversity loss, and the climate crisis).

Notes to editors
* In July 2020, the European Union launched a €750 billion pandemic recovery fund, of which 37% is earmarked specifically for fighting climate change with the rest going toward other investments and reforms to strengthen resilience, a digital transformation, fairness, and macroeconomic stability. EU member states now have until the end of April to submit their final spending plans to account for their share of the financial aid. Greece will receive €32 billion in a combination of grants and loans.

National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Greece’s official spending plan for the recovery funds.
Read the full draft of our open letter to the Deputy Minister of Finance.

About Common Ground
Common Ground is a new platform for strengthening strategic cooperation among civil society in Greece. From greening the economy to reducing inequalities to safeguarding human rights, Common Ground seeks to accelerate change through joint action.

Follow Common Ground on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn.
For more information please contact:
Dominika Spyratou, Common Ground, Athens, Tel: +30 6977868655,
dominika@commongroundgreece.org