Greece on Wednesday shut down its Public Ports Authority (PPA), an agency that made headlines late last year for attempts to lift a high-profile wreck at the expense of its owners.
Shipping minister Yiannis Plakiotakis said the PPA, which was set up by the country’s previous left-wing government four years ago, was no longer needed.
“I never understood what purpose it served in the first place,” he told lawmakers in parliament on 18 March, introducing legislation to scrap the authority.
Opposition lawmakers and residents of the island of Santorini, however, are convinced the government is killing the PPA to bury for good a €350m ($390m) tender the authority called in December to raise the 22,000-gt Sea Diamond (built 1986). The cruiseship has been lying at the bottom of the sea off Santorini island for 13 years.
PPA chief Dimosthenis Bakopoulos wanted the owners of the Louis Cruise Lines-operated ship and its protection and indemnity club to carry the financial burden. Plakiotakis cancelled the tender in January, a few days before a deadline for potential bidders to express interest. Bakopoulos said two Chinese companies came forward for the business but he refused to identify them.
Decision challenged
“Minister, tell us what you will do with the Sea Diamond now,” Communist KKE party lawmaker Diamanto Manolakou asked in the parliament on 18 March.
The PPA’s abolition “only serves the interests of those abandoning wrecks in Greek seas and then profit off them”, said Save Santorini, a pressure group of local residents, in a statement decrying the decision.
The semi-independent PPA was set up as part of the privatisation of the Piraeus port, which is now controlled by China’s Cosco. Its main, original purpose, as set out in its charters, has been to perform public customs duties at the harbour, which could no longer reside with its new private owners.
Bakopoulos, however, a 41-year-old energetic lawyer, took an expansive view of PPA’s remit. He embarked on a campaign to salvage dozens of sunken or abandoned boats from across the country. He claimed that his activities spoilt a $100m party of looters raiding the ships.
His attempt to lift the Sea Diamond was a clear case of overreach, Plakiotakis said. The only organisation authorised to seek to raise the wreck is the port authority of Santoniri itself, his ministry officials have argued.
The Save Santorini pressure group, however, said this is just a subterfuge to thwart any attempts to lift the ship, which they consider to be an environmental time bomb.
“The Santorini port authority has only one employee and has stated a long time ago it’s not capable of performing such a complicated task,” the group said in its statement.
