The lies of Mr. Skylakakis in Parliament about Data Journalists

A masterclass in hypocrisy was delivered in Parliament by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Theodoros Skylakakis, who appeared to be responding to a question from Alexis Haritsis following the Data Journalists’ report on the so-called “Dutch experts” from…Tavros, who were entrusted with water management in Thessaly and Crete.

The report by Data Journalists, titled “The ‘Dutch experts’ who were supposed to save Thessaly are actually from Tavros,” sheds light on the shady past of a company dealing in “food and colonial goods” that was rebranded as a specialist in water management and natural disaster response. The company’s management includes individuals with direct ties to New Democracy. The report was released on October 8, 2024.

The leader of the New Left parliamentary group, Alexis Haritsis, submitted the urgent question on October 14, referring to information from our report in Parliament. It’s worth noting that members of the same party had previously submitted questions with similar titles to the Ministries of Environment and Energy and Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in April and July: “Reasonable questions regarding the assignment of the flood protection study for Thessaly to the Dutch company HVA” and “Unanswered questions about the Dutch company HVA”. The written answers provided at that time were devoid of substance.

Last Monday, however, Mr. Skylakakis appeared in person in Parliament. He conveniently forgot his responsibility for the situation with energy tariffs and the dissatisfaction they cause among consumers, as recorded in public opinion polls. He staunchly defended the direct orders for the planning of such critical projects. Moreover, he pretended to forget the name of the investigating team, Data Journalists, even though the revelations about the “Dutch experts” sparked discussions and reactions both within his ministry and at the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP), whose head is Grigoris D. Dimitriadis, the former executive vice president of HVA.

In his initial presentation of the question, Alexis Haritsis noted that one year after the impact of Daniel in Thessaly, the wounds in the Thessalian plain remain wide open, the residents feel isolated, and the timelines for flood protection projects continue to be postponed. While there is a noticeable delay in the implementation of these projects, the state has shown remarkable urgency in bringing forward “an unknown Dutch company, supposedly a guru in disaster recovery and water management”, which was tasked with carrying out studies without a public tender, but rather through private sponsorship from banks for Thessaly and from GEK-TERNA for Crete.

He reminded the Parliament that the company’s study was published in English and that, based on it, the government hastily created a public limited company (Thessaly Water Management Organization) for water management, and he asked the question:

“First, what criteria were used to award the Thessaly and Crete studies to this particular firm?

Second, what experience and expertise does this company have? I hope you have a list of relevant projects that the company’s executives have presented to you.

Third, who assessed the technical and financial adequacy of this company?

Fourth, are you aware that the CEO of this company said that this company already has an investment plan for Thessaly? In other words, the company that is preparing the master plan also has its own investment interests in the same region. Isn’t this a conflict of interest?

And finally, fifth, since I imagine you’ve seen the recent report by Data Journalists, can you confirm or deny, Minister, that the Greek CEO of this company is going to head the public limited company you have established by law for the Thessaly Water Management Organization?”

When Mr. Skylakakis took the floor, it was clear from the start that he had no intention of answering these specific questions. Despite the fact that the flood protection projects for Thessaly have not yet been put out to tender, the Minister argued that it would have been a waste of time to conduct the process through a public tender. Instead of addressing the supposed qualifications and experience of the “Dutch experts”, he urged Haritsis to criticize the master plan they had drafted and accused him of “oppositional weakness” for failing to do so. He avoided discussing the substantial projects proposed by HVA for the plains of Thessaly, focusing instead on projects related to “mountain water management,” which he claimed had been assigned to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF).

In his rebuttal, Mr. Haritsis responded to the challenge by promising to submit a new urgent question to discuss the content of the Master Plan. However, he went on to ask more questions: “There is a critical issue of transparency here. Have you visited this company’s website? One would expect that such an old company, which supposedly operates worldwide, especially in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, would have many major projects to show as experience – a track record – in similar matters. But all you can find on their website are a few dots on a map that don’t even open or link to specific projects.

Mr. Haritsis reiterated that the Minister had failed to provide answers and spoke of tactics that “turn the crisis into an opportunity for business and the privatization of water.

In his rebuttal, the minister displayed a selective memory: “I didn’t note the name of the journalistic team you are referring to, but it is a team that, in this case, reproduces or creates fake news,” he said. He then either forgot or deliberately avoided mentioning the name of Miltos Gouzouris, the current CEO of HVA, who served as an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture under the Samaras government and as an advisor to Grigoris D. Dimitriadis when he was head of the Athens Municipal Transport Organization (OASA) until 2015. However, the minister seemed to recall the seven candidates in the selection process for the head of Thessaly Water Management Organization, clarifying that “the person you are referring to” was not among them.

It’s worth noting that in our October 8th report, we provided information suggesting that Mr. Gouzouris would be appointed as the head of the Thessaly Water Management Organization. Moreover, the study he authored specifically outlined astronomical salaries totaling 3 million euros to be allocated for the management of this organization. In any case, Mr. Skylakakis denied that Mr. Gouzouris would take this position, adding that this had nothing to do with the revelations of the Data Journalists.

Apart from that, the Environment and Energy Minister followed a familiar counter-attack tactic, talking about the “fantasies” of journalists and using an example he’d previously mentioned, regarding a report that appeared before the recent European elections. “We had – although I can’t remember which journalists, I think of a similar mindset – I’m not sure if it was the same ones – the news that on July 1, right before the European elections, the price of bottled water would go up ten cents. This spread everywhere, and it turned out to be a myth because July 1 came and nothing went up. In general, the trick of saying something outrageous, writing it down, and then asking the other side to refute it is one of the oldest tricks in opposition tactics, but not one of journalistic seriousness or logic, especially when we know who the candidates are,” he said.

Mr. Skylakakis is well aware of who was writing at the time (and it certainly wasn’t Data Journalists) about the “guarantee deposit system,” under which each bottle of water or soda would carry an extra charge, with part of the amount refunded through a system that collected the empty bottles. He also knows that this system has been in the works and announced for years, but has been stalled until the business interests that are supposed to handle it are properly prepared. Furthermore, he knows that Data Journalists recently exposed the incompetence of his ministry’s leaders in delaying waste management projects (Waste Treatment Units: All Projects at Risk – A 250-Million-Euro Shortfall), the tens of millions in lost European funds (Revelation: 70 million euros lost for waste management project in Peloponnese), and the findings of the Court of Auditors on the recycling “Recycling Houses” scandal (Explosive Report on the “Recycling Houses” Scandal). These revelations may even be directly related to the delayed implementation of the “Guarantee Deposit System”.

As for the remaining questions posed by Haritsis, Mr. Skylakakis did not address them at all. Instead, he chose to lecture the head of the “New Left” by saying, “It’s a sin to criticize the process when you have a problem with the substance.” It’s also worth noting that Mr. Skylakakis, who has recently been appearing daily on at least one TV channel, was never asked about the issue of the “Dutch experts”. Perhaps the new “Petsas list” of 10 million Euros from the National Recycling Organization, which our investigative team uncovered (Another cash handout to the media: 10 million euros for promoting recycling), plays a role in this silence.

Dutch Greenhouses

The Data Journalists are determined to continue their revelations about the unthinkable business ventures being set up in Thessaly under the pretext of the climate crisis, following the guidance of the so-called “Dutch experts”. They begin immediately below with a first reference to the encouragement within the HVA Master Plan to fill the region with Dutch-style greenhouses. Let’s present some relevant excerpts from the Greek translation of the Master Plan, although, as the “experts” note, “in any case, the original English text serves as the basis for the interpretation of the Plan”:

“Considering the historical trend observed among farmers worldwide, including in Thessaly, which is characterized by a reluctance to quickly adopt even minor changes and proven innovations, it is reasonable to expect a significant degree of hesitation when faced with the prospect of implementing substantial changes. These changes include the transition to different crops, the shift from traditional arable farming to orchards and open field vegetables, and the exploration of the field of closed horticulture in glass greenhouses.”

“The greenhouse horticulture sector is a prime example of innovation adoption, demonstrating improvements in all aspects of cultivation, from pest control and water management to the incorporation of new plant varieties and more efficient use of light and heat. Faced with increasing demands for sustainability and rapidly rising labor and energy costs, the sector has managed to maintain its competitiveness through a commitment to continuous innovation. The fact that the efficiency of artificial lighting in greenhouses doubles every five years illustrates the rapid pace of innovation.

“The adoption of innovation has made the Dutch greenhouse horticulture sector particularly competitive.”

“In Thessaly, where water scarcity is a serious issue due to the depletion of groundwater, greenhouse vegetable production should be a promising avenue to explore, given its particularly low water footprint.”

“Currently, Thessaly has a much smaller presence of greenhouses compared to the rest of Greece, with only 150 hectares spread across areas such as Larissa, Trikala, Karditsa, and Magnesia. In comparison, Greece has more than 6,000 hectares of greenhouses under cultivation, which shows that Thessaly is lagging behind in this sector”.

The Dutch effort to fill the region with greenhouses has been evident since last March when the master plan was submitted. But in September, from the podium of the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF), Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pushed the issue forward by announcing the funding of 600 million euros for greenhouse installations, the roofs of which would be fitted with photovoltaic panels, as Rural Development Minister K. Tsiaras noted in an interview.

“Greenhouse farming is a natural evolution of production. It offers protection against the effects of the climate crisis, reduces water consumption and the use of pesticides, lowers cultivation costs, and increases production yields up to tenfold,” emphasized Mr. Tsiaras, adding that “all this, combined with the development of innovative agro voltaic systems, can further increase the competitiveness of Greek agricultural products in an increasingly demanding international market.”

In the reports accompanying the announcements, it was noted that 50% of the €600 million funding would come from Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds. However, 35% would come from bank loans, while the remaining 15% would have to be covered by the interested farmers through their capital. What remains completely unclear is who will benefit from the electricity generated by the solar panels on the greenhouse roofs. Will it be credited to the farmers, or will it be used to pay off the bank loans?

The main “trick” behind the proposal for the greenhouses is that they will serve as a “support base” for the installation of solar farms on their roofs. This isn’t a problem because solar panels are “products of the devil”, but rather because using greenhouses as a strategy helps to circumvent various obstacles that have previously hindered their expansion in the Thessalian plain.

In essence, it circumvents restrictions on the use of high-quality agricultural land for solar parks and provides an additional incentive to convert various areas previously considered forestal into arable land – areas over which the state has ownership rights. It also addresses the logical question of the purpose of greenhouses in an era of dire climate predictions and summers that may last 9, 10, or even more months.