On Wednesday 21 October, the Spata–Artemida Municipal Council approved the 7th amendment to the 2026 budget during a meeting held via videoconference. Under Decision 148/2026, which was published on the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal on Friday 23 October, expenditure is increased by €3,045,170.92, other expenditure is reduced by €2,989,083, and €53,640.42 in new revenue is recorded. The municipality’s reserve falls from €3,768.52 to €1,321.02. The resolution was passed by a majority; the councillors Myrto Tsigkouli, Vasileios Dimitrios Gorgomytis and Filippos Argyros voted against it.
When we wrote about the 7th budget revision on 18 October, the reserve stood at 3,768.52 euros. The motion that was passed reallocates nearly 3 million euros between budget lines, and three further amendments were added during the meeting: a 30-cubic-metre refuse container (37,000 euros), €5,000 for financial assistance to residents in need, and an additional €4,960 for the collection of branches and rubble.
Where does the money go?
The largest increase relates to water. The budget line under which the Municipality pays its EYDAP bills has risen by 882,000 euros, from 2,564,499.46 to 3,446,499.46 euros. Next comes electricity for street lighting, squares and public spaces: the budget had estimated 450,000 euros, and the revision raises this to 750,000.
Next come legal costs and the enforcement of court judgements, which amount to 800,000 euros (+86,000), and the commission paid to the Public Power Corporation (PPC) for the collection of municipal charges via electricity bills, which has risen by 170,000 to 565,866.75 euros. In the Cleaning and Street Lighting Department, the budget items for night work and public holidays, contract staff, overtime and contributions have increased by a total of 238,000 euros, whilst the basic salary of permanent staff in the same department has been reduced by 300,000.
Smaller sums are allocated to Christmas and schools. Christmas decorations receive an additional 37,200 euros in each municipal district, totalling approximately 74,400 euros in Artemida and a similar amount in Spata, whilst a budget of 35,000 euros has been allocated for Christmas events in Artemida, matching the amount previously allocated for Spata. The budget for the Philharmonic’s uniforms has been increased from 15,000 to 35,000 euros. For schools, 30,000 euros have been allocated to pay an engineer to carry out an earthquake-resistance assessment, 32,000 for lightning conductors in primary schools, €20,000 for a solicitor to rectify the registration of school properties in the Land Registry, as well as funds for air-conditioning units, boiler rooms and medical supplies.
Where are they cut from?
The funding comes mainly from projects. The cost of the energy-efficiency upgrade to reopen the main building of the Artemida Cultural Centre, together with the regeneration of the surrounding area, has fallen from 300,000 to 30,000 euros. The upgrade of the sports facilities in block G11 of the Christoupoli settlement, also to enable them to reopen, has been reduced from 500,000 to 50,000. The roads in the Petra Gialou–Voulia–Prokalisi business park are reduced to zero (−300,000).
There are also significant cuts to the water network: the replacement and extension of water mains is being reduced from 350,000 to 100,000 euros, EYDAP’s network reinforcement connections from 210,000 to 10,000, telemetry maintenance is reduced by 93,040 euros, and the cost of generators for pumping stations (40,000) is written off. In roadworks, the budget line for roads in the Artemida Municipal Unit falls from 268,200 to 100,000 euros and pavements from 150,000 to 10,000, whilst the main roadworks budget for both units receives an additional 100,000. Also cut to zero are maintenance costs for the ‘D. Dimitriou’ Municipal Gymnasium (20,000), CCTV cameras at sports facilities (28,000), air-conditioning units at Artemida schools (10,000) and support services for the monitoring of aircraft noise (29,946) have been cut to zero.
What does it mean?
When a project code is reduced in October, the expenditure will usually not be incurred within that financial year and the project, if it continues, will be re-budgeted for 2027. The decision does not provide any justification for the cuts, so whether the Cultural Centre and the Christoupoli facilities will have their funding restored will become clear in the new budget. The minority’s arguments are recorded in the transcribed minutes, which have not yet been published.
With a reserve of 1,321 euros, any unforeseen expenditure between now and the end of the year will require a further budget adjustment and further cuts elsewhere. The local authority will be held to account for the four-month period from July to October at the special meeting on Thursday 29 October, at 6.00 pm at the Spata Town Hall.
Source: Municipality of Spata–Artemida, Municipal Council Decision No. 148/2026 (meeting of 21 October 2026), Diaugia, 23 October 2026.
