Within a few weeks new law for the arbitrary

One of the first pieces of legislation expected to be presented by the Ministry of Environment and Energy in the coming weeks will concern regulations on urban planning violations. Speaking last Wednesday in Parliament on the government’s policy statements, Deputy Minister Yannis Tsironis raised the issue of amending the Kalafatis law on illegal construction (4178/13).

During his first term at the Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Tsironis had repeatedly stated that he planned to change the provisions of the law, particularly those concerning environmental “compensation” in areas where there is a high level of legalisation of urban planning violations, so that cities can… breathe.

An important incentive for continuing the policy of legalizing unauthorized buildings was Decision 1858/2015 of the Plenary Session of the Council of State, which ruled that the Kalafatis law on the re-legalization of unauthorized buildings was constitutional.

A working group at the ministry will draft amendments to the controversial regulations, while maintaining the “red line” that excludes from legalization any buildings constructed illegally in forests and coastal areas.

However, a few days ago, following the intervention of the Minister of the Interior and Administrative Reconstruction, Mr. Panagiotis Kouroumblis, it was decided to suspend the demolition of an illegal building in Perivolakia, Rafina, which has been pending for 20 years.

Political intervention last year halted the demolition of illegal taverns in Schinias and Mikrolimano, Piraeus, and two years ago, again with the intervention of the then Minister of Tourism, Ms. Olga Kefalogianni, the demolition of illegal buildings on the seafront at a hotel in Crete. Olga Kefalogianni, the demolition of illegal buildings on the seafront at a hotel in Crete was suspended.

As a result, hundreds of demolition protocols remain frozen in the country’s decentralized administrations, as do the Environment Ministry’s plans for approximately 120 demolitions of unauthorized buildings per month. According to a report by the Special Environmental Inspectors Service, which was made public in May 2012, the ministry’s “Rambos” had recommended since 2010 the development of a predetermined demolition plan lasting at least five years for the implementation of irrevocable demolition actions throughout the country.

As for the famous illegal villas in Mykonos, none have yet been demolished, even though they were proven to have been built after July 28, 2011 (only those built illegally before that date can be subject to the relevant legalization regulations) and were identified by the competent authorities by comparing aerial photographs from 2011 with those from previous years.

According to officials from the Ministry of Environment, the absence of aerial photographs after 2011 is a serious problem. According to them, the platform of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), which accepts legalization declarations, should be reinforced with aerial photographs of the entire country, so that there is evidence of the time of construction of the unauthorized building.

Currently, only 34% of Greek territory has been properly analyzed using aerial photographs, while it is estimated that purchasing satellite images covering the rest of the country would cost around €2 million.

Cancellation of arbitrary fines

The legalization of unauthorized buildings appears to have two sides. At the same time that state coffers are being filled with legalization fines (to date, around €1.5 million has been collected), fines for maintaining unauthorized buildings, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros, are being written off. In particular, as recorded in the WWF’s annual report on environmental legislation in Greece, a particularly important issue is the write-off of fines for maintaining unauthorized buildings as a result of their inclusion in the legalization regulations of recent years (Laws 3852/2010, Laws 4014/2011, 4067/2012, and 4178/2013).

As can be seen from a simple search of the relevant acts posted on Diafgeia, over the last year, 127 acts of fine write-offs have been approved by the competent municipalities, many of which concern more than one owner. The total amount of fines written off cannot be calculated from the acts posted on Diafgeia, as many decisions do not mention the amount of the fine.

For example, a decision by the Heraklion Municipal Council, based on relevant documents from the competent Construction Control Department, writes off fines totaling more than €480,000 for 17 owners who legalized urban planning violations for an unknown amount. Another decision, this time by the Alexandroupolis Municipal Council, approves the cancellation of uncollected fines amounting to €46,027 and €4,516 owed by a local sports club.