Apokoronas cuts electricity debt from €4.3m to €1.15m as 2026 budget approved

Summary

The municipality of Apokoronas has approved its 2026 budget, describing it as a turning point after more than a decade of operating under crisis conditions. The most concrete development is the near-elimination of a debt to the national electricity provider DEI: down from €4.3 million in November 2024 to around €1.15 million today, with full repayment targeted by the end of 2026. The roughly €2 million a year previously tied up in servicing that debt is now expected to fund roads, street lighting, water supply, waste collection and social services.

Apokoronas approves 2026 budget as electricity debt nears zero

The municipality of Apokoronas has voted through its budget for 2026, framing it as a shift from crisis management toward longer-term investment. The approval came alongside a presentation of the municipality's financial position over the past twelve years.

A debt that consumed €2 million a year — now almost gone

The headline figure is the collapse of Apokoronas's debt to the national electricity provider DEI. According to the municipality, that debt stood at €4.3 million in November 2024. It has since been reduced to approximately €1.15 million, with the stated goal of reaching zero by the end of 2026.

The practical consequence, according to the municipality, is significant. The roughly €2 million that had been committed annually to servicing that debt can now be redirected. The areas identified for reallocation include:

Roads and local infrastructure
Street lighting
Waste collection and cleaning
Water supply
Social services and schools

New water and sewerage authority established

Alongside the budget, the municipality announced the creation of DEVA Apokoronas, a dedicated public utility responsible for water supply and sewerage. The municipality describes this as a structural reform that replaces a previous arrangement it says had accumulated chronic problems.

Twelve years of crises — what the municipality says shaped the finances

The municipality points to a succession of pressures since 2014 as context for its current financial position: natural disasters, destructive wildfires, the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, and sharply rising operating costs. The 2026 budget is presented as the first in which these accumulated burdens are substantially under control.

The municipality also publicly acknowledged its new deputy director for financial and administrative services, Georgios Koutsoupakis, crediting him with managing the financial restructuring process under demanding conditions.

This account of progress is the municipality's own. Whether the planned reinvestment of freed-up funds translates into visible improvements for residents will become clearer over the course of 2026.

Official source

PRESS RELEASE – Charalampos Koukianakis: "The 2026 budget is a budget of transition – From survival to prospect"

30 April 2026, 10:26 AM

With words that were politically clear, substantive and bearing a strong imprint of responsibility toward the area and future generations, the Mayor of Apokoronas, Charalampos Koukianakis, spoke ahead of the vote on the municipal budget for the year 2026, sending a clear message that Apokoronas is leaving behind the period of perpetual survival and entering a new era of stability, self-sufficiency and development prospects.

As he underlined, the 2026 budget is the political and ethical expression of the responsibility of a municipal authority that was called upon to govern under conditions of continuous crises, but chose not to operate with the logic of managing decline, but with a plan, endurance and prospects.

The Mayor referred to the twelve-year course of the municipal authority, noting that the municipality of Apokoronas had never experienced real conditions of normality. Natural disasters, destructive wildfires, the pandemic, the energy crisis, skyrocketing operating costs, social pressure and accumulated financial burdens had created an exceptionally difficult governance environment.

Despite these suffocating conditions, the municipal authority did not limit itself solely to dealing with daily affairs. In parallel, it planned, sought and initiated major infrastructure projects and strategic interventions that fundamentally change the development map of Apokoronas, strengthen its institutional resilience and create real preconditions for tomorrow.

"We did not choose the easy path. We did not hide behind excuses. We chose the difficult but honest route — fiscal discipline, seriousness, methodical work and responsibility. And at the same time, we built the foundations for the Apokoronas of tomorrow," he stated emphatically.

He placed particular emphasis on the drastic financial rehabilitation of the municipality and specifically on the reduction of the debt to DEI (the Public Power Corporation), which from 4,300,000 euros in November 2024 has already been reduced to approximately 1,150,000 euros, with a clear goal of full elimination by the end of the year.

This is, as he noted, not simply a financial success — which belongs exclusively to our citizens — but a deeply political act of responsibility, as the approximately 2,000,000 euros that until now were being tied up annually to service this burden are now returning to where they belong: to the daily life of the citizen, to the roads, to municipal lighting, to cleaning, to water supply, to social structures, to schools and to the overall quality of life.

In parallel, he described the establishment of DEVA Apokoronas as a historic institutional rupture that definitively closes chronic pathologies and inaugurates a new era of serious, organised and responsible management of water, sewerage and the basic infrastructure of the municipality.

The Mayor publicly congratulated the new Deputy Director of Financial and Administrative Services of the municipality, Mr. Georgios Koutsoupakis, for the successful management of a particularly demanding task within a new institutional framework and increased demands for transparency and efficiency, underlining that the new generation of local government officers can shoulder great responsibilities with competence and consistency.

Mr. Koukianakis did not omit reference to the political attacks that the municipal authority has faced throughout this journey, stating clearly that Apokoronas cannot move forward through petty political manoeuvring, underground paths and behind-the-scenes agendas.

"Apokoronas is not governed by whispers and back-room dealings, but by clear words and clear actions."

Connecting the struggle of the present administration to the deep historical identity of the area, he said:

In closing, he described the 2026 budget as a hopeful, mature and entirely realistic budget that is not based on promises but on evidence, that does not invest in theories but in work and results.

"It is not a management budget. It is a transition budget: from survival to prospects, from pressure to development, from dependence to self-sufficiency, from uncertainty to self-determination," he noted, calling on the Municipal Council to approach it with seriousness, historical awareness and the sole criterion of the benefit of Apokoronas.

And he concluded with a phrase that encapsulates the philosophy of this journey:

"At the end of the day, it will not be the confrontations of the moment that judge us. It will be History, the citizens and our children. And then I want to be able to say with a clear gaze: We did our duty. We kept the municipality standing."