City opens fast service centers

The City of Athens will today inaugurate seven centers created to provide assistance and services to residents of the municipality.

Modeled along the lines of Citizens Advice Bureaus (KEPs), which deal with state matters, the new advice points will offer a range of municipal services – from documents pertaining to citizenship applications to building permits – significantly reducing the headache of having to queue at City Hall. They are located in all seven of the municipality’s districts and will operate on Saturdays as well. For more, see www.cityofathens.gr. There is no room for ego trips and personal whims when the country’s survival is at stake. The three party leaders who agreed just a year ago to join forces in order to govern the country must breach their differences today and restart their relationship on a new footing. The citizens of Greece will never forgive them if they lead the country to fresh elections and a new phase of serious instability. We all know that the decisions they have to take are hard, but this is exactly what their job is all about, not wheeling and dealing behind the scenes or lazing around while cashing a pay check. The three leaders in the coalition government have a duty to steer Greece to safe shores; they cannot stop midvoyage, in the middle of a storm, just to bicker or because they lost heart. Let each of them take one or even two steps back from their current position and find a point of convergence. And they should do so today, because tomorrow may just prove to be too late.