Disputes about off-plan development are endless, including because we are talking about the side that everyone sees.

The owner of a property in an unplanned area sees the problem differently, an investor who wants the value of such property to be reduced to a minimum in order to buy several neighboring properties at a low price and then consolidate and use them, a resident who has built a villa or his house on an unplanned territory around which no one else wants to build, a citizen who is not the owner and does not expect to become one, but believes that if unplanned construction suddenly stops, the environment will be magically preserved. I stop here because there are many cases that I can mention. And the Council of Europe sees this issue in different ways – indeed, in different ways from year to year and from decision to decision.

Following a recent decision by the Council of State regarding property in Patmos, where it requires a certain length of a person to be on an officially recognized road for any property to be considered buildable, the issuance of building permits in unplanned areas has been paralyzed by the majority of YMOD because the country is still no legally recognized (with PD) road network.

If, for example, someone bought 5 acres of land in their village in Evrytania to build a country house, or someone else bought 10 acres of unplanned land in Chania for a hotel, even if they bought (expensive) access to (rural or municipal ) he lost the road through slavery, like hundreds of thousands of possessions in the country to this day: after the decision of the Council of Europe on ownership on Patmos, he cannot build, but only use it as a pasture or garden.

To understand the magnitude of the problem, let me mention how many properties have a specific problem that is now occurring: over 90% of off-plan properties can no longer build anything there, and their owners number in the hundreds of thousands!

In other words, today in Greece, someone can pay a fortune for a property that he built for decades, in specific square meters, and the next day, due to a decision of the Supreme Court on unrelated real estate, the value of the property will be canceled! And let the Greek state passively accept it!

I have two questions for those who decide the issues of life and property of citizens in the country: is it a legal state, in a European country? If the depreciating property belonged to one of the decision makers, would his attitude be passive?

It is unprecedented that in one day, by the method of “sudden death”, the property of citizens and Greek land depreciate. Because such a horizontal ban does not actually protect the environment in practice, does not plan and does not investigate the impact on nature and people. What could be more unconstitutional and contrary to individual rights and international treaties?
Since judges are also judged, it is necessary to take the initiative to protect citizens from short-sighted and unscientific judicial decisions. I would even say that just as the law obliges to conduct a scientifically complete environmental impact assessment and licensing, just as the parliament is obliged to assess the consequences, so court decisions should be evaluated in terms of their environmental and other consequences. Because, after all, the environment is not just a legal issue. No one can make individual judgments that affect the environment or human rights throughout the country. It is not possible that, in the absence of a constitutional court, some judges on the Supreme Court of Annihilation believe that they make laws. Greek society cannot remain a burden of extreme decisions. Bringing citizens to extreme reactions…

At some point, the discussion must stop and there must be a final and final plan, which, indeed, for the first time in the history of the country, will be carried out in the next three years for the entire territory without any deviation. Local urban planning plans, which will define building and land use conditions across the country, mostly in unplanned areas, are already being prepared by TEE and the Department of the Interior as part of a major program funded by the Recovery and Resilience Fund and should be completed during 2025. At the same time, At the same time, the project of registering roads in unplanned areas is already moving forward, so that for the first time the state will receive, and indeed, with geospatial and other data, full mapping, so that the Ministry of the Interior can decide with knowledge of which roads will be those that give the right to develop adjacent possessions to them. All this together means that the necessary legislative measures will be taken, the necessary decrees will be issued, and citizens will know what will apply from today and forever.

It is scientifically, technically, constitutionally and logically correct to first have planning that also protects the environment, and then look at any horizontal and total prohibitions – which in fact have nothing to do with environmental protection, a concept directly and closely related to specific and measurable impacts and effects on site.

What is the solution?
1. Legislative transitional regulation to preserve the right to build until the completion of the TPP in 2025 of all facilities that were suitable for construction before 2003.
2. Creation of a special department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CoE, so that the TPN studies, which will be handed over in 2025, become PD. no later than 2026.

With these two steps, no citizen will be offended, there will be planning in the country, and the environment will be forever protected from unplanned construction.

Mr. Giorgos Stasinos is the President of the Hellenic Chamber of Tech.