European Projects of Poiein kai Prattein

EU Projects and activities fall into two periods: 1994 - 2002 when the poetry group called Touch Stone in collaboration with DIALOGOS initiated projects like 'ARTICULATE' and 'LOGOS', followed after 1996 by the Article 10 ERDF CIED project and parallel to that the LORE project; and after the formation of POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN in 2002 / 2003 all the others as named below:

Name	Project’s nature + concept	Type of Partnership	Result
MIRIAD 21	Industrial Risks: SEVESO Directive II	Greek Coordination in conjunction with ECO MAIRES in Paris as project leader	Citizens' Participation, Good Practice Manual
SISMA	Cultural heritage and seismic risks with Citizens as first rescuer	Support 3 Greek Partners in all work packages of the project	Vulnerability Studies, Civil Protection Exercise, Final Confernece in March 2007
GRDP	Environmental Evaluation	Subcontractor 2 – 1/2	Reports
RED CODE	Civil Protection	Advise 3 Partners in Crete: Iraklion City and Prefecture, Kastelli	help set-up, network
HERMES	Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage through use of New Media	Network of Internet Radio, Advisor for Volos	2 Studies: Museums and Cultural Planning, 2 years of Internet Radio, Sommer School, Symposium

European project experience

The two Interreg III B – CADSES projects: HERMES – promotion and protection of cultural heritage through use of the new media, and SISMA – the protection of cultural heritage against seismic related activities, entailed working and collaborating with political authorities while being engaged in cross-cultural partnerships. Involved as a NGO from the beginning, it meant bringing about the project, seeing through the set-up, doing substantial work and facilitating reporting and contact with the European Commission.

SISMA

The project involved four Italian, three Greek and one Slovakian partner.

POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN brought about the linkage between the four Italian partners and three different Greek types of authorities: a municipality on the island of Chios, the prefecture of Athens / Piraeus and the regional authority of Peloponnesus.

It should be pointed out that in the project POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN was not a sub-contracting partner even though we played in reality a much broader and further going integrative function in the project. We acted especially during the initial phase of the project as liaison between the three Greek and four Italian partners and therefore contributed as well to the overall coordination (in assistance to the project leader) of the project. Besides this, due to changes in government and therefore in political authorities bringing in with them new experts and consultants, we were engaged in a sort of training i.e. cultural adaptation to European project methodologies.

Still, a lot of expert knowledge was required in SISMA as multiple planning and other study requirements had to help political authorities come to terms with the need of protecting cultural heritage (both tangible and intangible) in case of seismic related activities. Anna Arvanitaki completed three vulnerability studies for the respective Greek Authorities and brought to bear her expert experience upon the project's development here in Greece.

POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN co-operated as well with Seismic experts like George Drakatos and Katie Valadaki and improved thereby know-how of GIS based maps and seismic studies. The SISMA project meant as well in its final phase to enter fully civil protection exercises which were performed both in Nafplion and Athens. As NGO of Civil Society POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN promoted throughout the project's life time the fact that the citizen should act as first rescuer.

GRDP

POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN was furthermore involved in the GRDP project: the Greening of the Regional Development Plans – a project designed to evaluate how the environmental impact of projects funded by the Structural Fund has been taken care of in two specific areas in Greece: the region of Western Greece and in the South Aegean.

MIRIAD 21

Also we have been engaged in bringing Greek partners – three local authorities – into the MIRIAD 21 project lead by ECO MAIRES in Paris. Here the main concern is civil protection for both citizens and children in the case of industrial accidents. It is a project that wishes to follow up the Seveso II directive of the European Union and therefore has to do with as much urban planning i.e. location of industry and use of industrial spaces as with industrial risk assessment. Of great interest in this project was the Citizens’ Forum and the Mini Miriad action involving school children in order to evaluate how they perceive industrial risks. The project sought to bring about European wide standards when it comes to risk assessment, emergency signals and procedures. To this, it meant citizens asking experts about safety procedures in terms of various categories of industrial activities.

Experiences in this project varied a great deal. Often things were complicated by a heavily centralized project coordination with not really enough resources given to the partners to complete the more serious background studies needed for further actions to implement the SEVESO II directive in full. It was also a difficult task to bring the Municipalities on board, while one falling clearly into the jurisdiction of Seveso II due to having 120 industrial plants in its area did not join - an indiciation of resistance within Greece to EU directives.

HERMES

The HERMES project was like SISMA an Interreg III B - CADSES project.

It included an Internet Radio network to fulfil the aim that to protect cultural heritage, the best way is to use it, but with the safeguard of public attention. See www.heritageradio.net This meant the establishment of network consisting of six radio stations to promote cultural heritage especially in Eastern Europe. In Volos, the Municipal Radio station did not join and instead a Platform for cultural was created: www.i-politismos.gr It provided the organisational basis for future cultural developments e.g. set-up of three new museums.

Civil Protection

Within SISMA, MIRIAD 21, GRDP and other initiatives, civil protection experiences were made as well by involving citizens in emergency measures. Civil protection has become a tested tool in collaboration with other partners e.g. Red Cross of Greece.

Link: Civil Protection Unit of the European Commission http://ec.europa.eu/environment/civil

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