On August 10, 2016 COSCO Group officially announced that it had taken over the Greek port of Piraeus, the “southern gateway to Europe” on the Mediterranean Sea, an event that created an instant sensation. A commentary in the “New York Times” hit the nail on the head, saying that China has turned the port of Piraeus into the “faucet” of China’s massive “Belt and Road” project, which aims to open up a “New Silk Road” to Europe. The “New Silk Road” to Europe. Nearly five years later, how is the development of this important Greek port controlled by Chinese companies?
In a detailed report recently published by the French newspaper Le Monde from its correspondent in Athena, Marina Rafenberg, it can be seen that the locals are dissatisfied with the way COSCO operates: the benefits expected from the Chinese investment are far less than expected; the funds promised by the Chinese side are not available, and the development of the port has caused a lot of problems for the local population. The expansion project has caused disruption to the lives of local residents and lack of environmental impact assessment ……
The report notes that despite the New Crown pandemic, Chinese company Cosco Shipping, which acquired the management of the Greek port of Piraeus in 2016, is looking to expand its operations, with the contract expiring in 2052. But growing anger among local residents against Chinese investors has forced the project to slow down.
Resistance and bureaucracy
Blue and orange cranes dot the horizon in the western part of the port of Piraeus. The blue one has top technology and is owned by Chinese investor COSCO, which appears dilapidated and belongs to the Greek Public Ports Authority. The Chinese company will run Piraeus’ container and passenger transport operations until 2052, but the red graffiti in front of COSCO’s headquarters office exudes anger: “COSCO is only interested in containers, not in our lives. It destroys the whole region.”
Since 2009, COSCO, the Chinese multinational, has been operating at the port of Piraeus, which operates two container terminals through its subsidiary PCT, and has faced a lot of resistance from the beginning of its operations. Dock workers carrying signs that read “COSCO, go Home!” banners, participated in several rallies and marches, and demanded that their new employer comply with Greek labor laws.
How did COSCO come to acquire a strategically valuable port with a long history in Greece? The New York Times reported that Greece had been struggling for years with austerity policies imposed by its European partners and a lukewarm attitude from the United States. Greece then began to throw itself into the arms of its own most ardent and geopolitically ambitious suitor, China. While Europe was busy imposing austerity on Greece, large Chinese investments poured into the country, investments that have begun to pay dividends, not only economically, but appear to have given China a political foothold in Greece, allowing Chinese influence to extend through Greece to Europe.
During the 2016 debt crisis, the Greek government, needing to urgently replenish its treasury, first ceded a 51 percent stake in COSCO Piraeus Port Authority (PLO) and then plans to sell another 368.5 million euros worth, or about 16 percent, in the summer of 2021. In order to acquire the remaining shares, COSCO Shipping has committed to invest more than 293 million euros in the port business by 2021.
“In fact, according to a document released by the Greek Navy Ministry in February, only 58 percent of the $293 million was actually invested, writes Le Monde. In addition, certain projects, such as the expansion of the passenger port, actually benefited from European funding. Nektarios Demenopoulos, a spokesman for the Piraeus Port Authority, said the funds were not available because “some projects are still not licensed” and “the pandemic of the new crown Epidemic has also caused delays”.
Container terminal at the Greek port of Piraeus Reuters
George Tzogopoulos, a researcher at the Greek Foundation for Foreign and European Policy (Eliamep), noted that “COSCO and Piraeus Port Authority executives are annoyed because they have encountered a lot of local resistance and bureaucratic problems, and they believe that the Greek government should give up 16 percent of the shares because the delays are not on them. them.”
On February 9 of this year, at the “17 + 1” ‘China + 17 countries of Central and Eastern Europe’ summit, the Greek Prime Minister was “pleased with COSCO’s investment in China”, a project he considered beneficial for both countries. . For its part, Beijing has long set Piraeus as an important step in its “New Silk Road” (Belt and Road) strategy, which will allow China to sell its products to Europe through Piraeus and at the same Time increase its soft power. To this end, Beijing intends to continue increasing the capacity of this Greek port.
In fact, the port’s container traffic has grown from 665,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent containers) in 2009 to 5.65 million in 2019, making Piraeus a major port in the Mediterranean and the fourth largest in Europe. COSCO’s development plan includes the construction of a fourth container terminal, while also making Piraeus a European cruise hub and e-commerce sorting center. The project has already created more than 2,500 direct jobs, and direct and indirect taxes have added more than 1 billion euros in public revenue to the region.
“Acting as if it were a colony”
COSCO’s most recent acquisition was a floating dock purchased in 2018. According to the Greek Navy Ministry, Beijing promised to invest 55 million euros in the area, but the actual investment was only 31 million. Most importantly, the majority shareholder of the Piraeus Port Authority (Piraeus Port Authority) is COSCO, which has expressed its desire to build its own shipyard. The Attica region already rejected this request in 2018. However, in June 2020, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court approved China’s efforts to move forward with the project. The Piraeus Port Authority told ” Le Monde ” that “it is not possible to build ships and no foreign workers will be hired (…), the repair work will be carried out in cooperation with local companies”.
COSCO estimates that the number of ships repaired at the terminal increased from 69 in 2016 to 108 in 2019 (a 56% rise), and in 2020 this number continues to grow despite the Covid-19 crisis. But locals fear that the resulting unfair competition could be a deadly threat to dozens of Greek companies if a shipyard managed by COSCO emerges, and they also point out that “the agreement signed between the Greek government and COSCO in 2016 does not provide for the establishment of shipyards. But the Chinese try to grab everything they can and ignore local employees or businesses. They are acting as if we are a colony. We won’t let that happen.”
In June 2020, traffic to the container terminal was blocked by 500 trucks for several hours, and union representatives were able to meet with COSCO and the port’s management, Vasilis Kanakakis, explaining that they had asked for written guarantees to ensure that the other side would not move forward with the shipyard project, but failed. The Greek Conservative government does not seem to want to cave in on this issue.
This reporter could see carefully repaired yachts in a shipyard called Atlas in Perama, not far from the port. Owner Theologos Katsoulakos is worried about the future: “COSCO has never stopped its expansion plans. It also wants to build a parking lot in the area and expropriate shipyard land, something that was strictly prohibited in the 2016 agreement. “Next to him, another builder insisted that “everything is a gift to Chinese investors. The government has acted to help companies struggling in the new crown pandemic, in particular by reducing their rents. But because COSCO did not accept them, we did not benefit from these measures.”
The contractor also denounced the prices charged by the port management and COSCO for the ships. mr. Prasinos was unhappy with this. He told Le Monde, “COSCO is not interested in products other than containers. The policy set by the shipyard is completely unattractive to customers. A three-day ship repair job costs 27,000 euros, while in more distant ports, such as Chalkida on the island of Evia (Eubée), the second largest island in Greece, the same job costs only 4,000 euros. “
For the residents of Perama, which has been hit hard by the economic crisis, the main thing is to find work. We don’t care if the boss is Chinese or Greek,” says one of the shipyard workers. But what we have seen is that we have not benefited from COSCO’s operations in the region since they began, nor have we been reassured by the way PCT, a subsidiary of COSCO, has managed the container terminal.” . Giorgos Gogos, general secretary of the dockers’ union, added: ” Working conditions at PCT have only gotten worse. The number of workers recruited by the temporary agencies continues to grow, they do not benefit from collective agreements and do not receive the same pay as they should for hard work or holiday work.”
Pollution, nuisance, lack of environmental studies
In Keratsini, the second front line of opposition to COSCO. Vassiliki, a retiree from the Agiou Giorgiou district, told reporters she was concerned that “the constant traffic associated with COSCO’s activities will create noise nuisances and pollution. Just 400 meters from her home, cranes and hangars will be deployed within a few kilometers. In June 2020, the municipality requested a halt to the works and appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, condemning the company for not having conducted a study on the environmental impact caused by its activities.
At the port of Piraeus, the expansion of the cruise terminal worth more than 1 million euros has sparked the anger of officials and local residents. In 2019, Greece’s archaeological department wants to put an end to COSCO’s massive project, which plans to build shopping centers and skyscrapers. In December 2020, a group of citizens demanded a freeze on the construction works, which they said had not been sufficiently restricted by security measures. On February 16, the Piraeus Court rejected their lawsuit.
City Councillor Nikos Belavilas said, “COSCO took advantage of the pandemic and the reduction of social movements to launch its most controversial project. Work on the cruise terminal went up during the first city closure in spring 2020. Local leftist elected officials denounced the lack of environmental studies for the project, while “the constant dust, noise, exhaust fumes, and traffic congestion are causing a serious nuisance to residents. But Yannis Moralis, mayor of Piraeus, wants to believe that these Chinese investments “will eventually reap benefits for the city. This particular project will bring economic development, tourism and jobs to Piraeus,” he said. “However, he also admits at this point that “within the Piraeus municipality, all the investments projected in the 2016 concession grant agreement have not been met.”
In addition to the cruise terminal, hotel buildings, museums and an electric bus network should soon be on the horizon. After ten years of development by Chinese investors in Piraeus, the results are not convincing. Nikos Bellavilas concludes. “We don’t see any effort to build a sustainable and equitable economy or the will to provide jobs for local communities and have a positive impact on the environment.”
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