Το:Mr. D. Ahner, Director General for Regional Policy

Att. of:Commissioner Mr. J. Hahn

Subject:Water Project of Corfu and Paxos islands

Dear Mr. Ahner,

Hereby, I would like to bring into your consideration the urgent need for the direct completion of the procedures associated with the final assessment, by the DG for Regional Policy, of the Water Project of Corfu and Paxos islands.

Please do note that the project is vital for the inhabitants ofCorfu and Paxos,as it will solve the problem of water supply the islands have suffered from for decades.Additionally, it will stimulate the local market by creating new jobs during a period of severe economic crisis. Therefore, it has the full and unconditional backing of all political parties, all local MPs, all elected municipal and regional authorities, plus the Chamber of Commerce and theTechnical Chamber.

The project cost is estimated at 288 million euros, making it the biggest project in the history of the Prefecture. The project funding, provided by the National Strategic Reference Framework by 65% and by national funds by 35%, was signed in March 2009 by the then Ministry of Public Works, Mr.Georgios Souflias and was entered in Collective Decision Engineering (076/8) shortly thereafter (April 2009).

Although all relevant technical studies (full and documented) were completed shortly before the national election of September 2009, a problem of modification of environmental conditions was raised, due to the need for taking aggregates from a different region than the one that was initially pointed out.

Despite the commitments of the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks (ex Public Works) for the auction of the project in the first half of 2010,the new environmental conditions were signed only on12/05/2010 by the competent Directorate of the Ministry of Infrastructure, while the full process was only completed in mid-November last year. Shortly thereafter, the project file was submitted to the D.G. for Regional Policy by the Special Secretariat for Water Affairs / Managing Authority EPPERAA of the Ministry of Environmentfor the final assessment.

In view of the forthcoming visit of a delegation of the D.G. for Regional Policy, programmed for the 13thand 14thof February and taking into consideration the assurances of the Directorate of the Ministry of Infrastructure (D6) regarding the completeness of the technical studies submitted documentation, I would like to stress the importance of the completion of the assessment by the DGfor Regional Policy the soonest possible time.

Sincerely Yours,

Nikos Dendias