44 efforts are required to achieve the objectives and that, as the Government maintains, a certain lack of precision is inevitable in such exercises. Nevertheless, the Committee considers that the authority granted to Greece to increase its SO2 emissions under Directive 2001/81/EC on national emission ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants, the purchase of emission rights to meet the forecasts in NAP1, which are much less demanding than the Kyoto Protocol target, and the power granted to the environment minister under Joint Ministerial Order 58751/2370 to authorise higher limit values for emissions in combustion plants using Greek lignite do not offer real evidence of Greece's commitment to improving the situation within a reasonable time or make such an outcome plausible. 208. The Committee also notes that Act 2947/2001 gives responsibility for monitoring private and public operators' compliance with environmental legislation to a special environmental inspectorate, which according to the MFHR has only been operational since 2004, something the Government does not deny, and that of the 78 posts in the inspectorate, there are only 28 in the general section and southern Greece and four in northern Greece. 209. Information supplied by the complainant organisation shows that when air quality measurements reveal that emission limit values have been exceeded, as in the case of the Aghios Dimitrios plant, the penalties imposed in the form of fines are limited and have little deferrent effect. The Government confines itself to stating that the financial penalties satisfy the proportionality principle and fails to show that when checks carried out reveal violations this leads to effective measures with a direct impact on emission levels. 210. Turning to measures to ensure that plant and equipment are adapted to the "best available techniques", the Government simply indicates that checks are mainly carried out by the supervisory authorities responsible for the authorisation procedure in Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (the IDEH Directive) and in the procedure for approving environmental criteria. Again, it does not show how these checks are carried out in practice and how effective they are. 211. The Committee notes that although in its second response the Government replies point by point to the issues raised by the request in 2004 from the Megalopolis citizen’s movement to the Arkadia prefecture for an investigation, it did not at any stage communicate this information at an appropriate moment to the association. 212. The Committee notes that, despite the Ombudsman's findings, the Kardia, Aghios Dimitrios and Ptolemaida power stations are operating on the basis of a temporary operating licence that has been extended to 2008, without prior approval of the environmental criteria. The Committee agrees with the Government that considerable economic harm could ensue from an interruption to these plants' operations, but cannot accept the Greek authorities' interpretation of the distinction between the operating and the environmental authorisation procedures, which deprives the latter of any potential value. 213 The Committee considers that the Greek Government's explanations concerning the failure to implement several decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court do not invalidate the complainant's arguments.