Interior, Public Administration and Electronic Governance Minister Yiannis Ragoussis presented during Sunday's cabinet meeting the main principles of the new architectiure for municipalities which will bear the codename "Kallikratis", the name of one of the two architects of the Parthenon.

The minister revealed that the programme will be ratified by May at the latest and local government elections on November 14, 2010, will be taking place in the new municipalities and regions.

Rangoussis clarified that land planning will be carried out in the second phase of the bill's consultations. He added that the new archcitecture concerns both levels of local administration.

With the "Kallikratis" programme the foundations will be laid for second stage regional local administration and 13 regions will be created in the place of the 76 prefectures. From the 1,034 municipalities currently existing less than 370 will be established, while the approximately six thousand legal entities and municipal corporations will be limited to 2,000. In addition, seven general administrations will be formed that will replace the present 13 state regions and the decentralised state entities, whose existence is imposed by the Constitution.

According to what Rangoussis said, regional local administration will constitute the "vehicle" for green development. He also said that there will be a change in the way of controlling local administration resources, there shall be a compulsory presentation of administrative decisions in the Internet and an autonomous service for checking local administration bodies will be established.

Moreover, funds amounting to 650 million euros from ESPA will be revised and adjusted to support this change and for the hiring of the necessary scientific staff.