Plan to redraw the coastline in the near future

The draft law on the concession of coastal land use introduces harsh measures, insisted Deputy Minister of Finance Katerina Papanatsiou at the second meeting of the committee working on the provisions for coastal land. The deputy minister clarified that a prior decision by the Council of Ministers will be required to determine whether a project is of national importance in order for it to be granted use of the foreshore.

There will be no settlement for anything that lacks an environmental permit or does not meet the requirements, Katerina Papanatsiou also stated, pointing out that in order for the Ministry of Finance to grant a concession for the use of the foreshore, environmental legislation must have been complied with and approval must have been given by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. In addition, the GEN, must also give its approval in cases of projects serving watercraft, as well as the relevant ministries where necessary. The Deputy Minister stressed that demolition will only be exempted if environmental conditions are met.

Ms. Papanatsiou also informed the Parliamentary Committee that the government plans to “redraw the coastline in the near future, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Spatial Planning.”

Earlier, during the hearing of stakeholders, Theodota Nantsou,WWF Policy Director, referring to the regulations on the foreshore, said that there are articles that “regularize or open the door to a new wave of regularization of unauthorized buildings in the country’s coastal zone.”

“We do not view the coastal zone as solely an economic resource for the country; we view it as the most critical natural infrastructure and infrastructure for protecting people, property, and the natural environment in light of climate change,” said the WWF Policy Director, emphasizing that there is a major issue with Articles 34 and 28 of the draft law, which “open new chapters for the regularization of unauthorized buildings.”

“We are concerned that, instead of upholding the rule of law, Parliament is constantly discusses new amendments and extensions to the tradition in our country of regularizing arbitrary and illegal actions instead of honoring people, businesses, and investors who come to Greece to respect the country’s environmental legislation,” said Ms. Nantsou, complaining that the specific articles of the draft law “open up the issue of regularizing arbitrary actions, whether investments that have been legally made under development laws and have extensions in the coastal zone, tourism businesses and, in general, projects that extend illegally into the foreshore, or projects that have violated environmental legislation and do not have an environmental permit.”

The representative of WWF emphasized that we must open more the discussion about a proper and comprehensive institutional framework for the protection of the coastline, which sets as a priority the integrated management of the integrated management of the coastal zone. He said, also, that the first step must be the ratification of the Protocol for the integrated management of the coastal zone.

Michalis Kalogiannakis, president of the Association of Certified Agricultural Surveyors and Engineers, criticized Articles 28 and 34, saying that there is no precedent for retroactive licensing, and complained that there are provisions that lead to environmental crimes and amendments to the existing framework that leave room for negotiation. In particular, he said that any hotel that happened to be owned by the Greek National Tourism Organization (EOT) would henceforth be able to do whatever it wanted forever. He also said that not only those who had acted arbitrarily but also those who had trespassed were essentially being legalized.

“These are technical crimes in which the technical world cannot participate. The government’s environmental sensitivity stops at the doors of large hotels,” said Mr. Kalogiannakis, noting that a few days after the Council of State’s decision on residential density, according to which second homes owned by ordinary citizens are essentially considered impossible to legalize, the government is now legalising large hotels because they are considered to be of national importance.

For her part, Marina Spyridaki, Director of Business Environment and Regulatory Policy at SEV, emphasized that “SEV has repeatedly stressed the importance of increasing industry to 12% of GDP through new investments and increased exports, a goal that will not be achieved unless long-standing problems and disincentives that perpetuate a business environment of insecurity, injustice, and uncertainty are removed.” In this context, he stressed that “the framework for granting coastal and beach concessions for industrial activities is one of the most characteristic examples and requires immediate regulation through uniform and stable rules for all critical operations.”

Ioannis Pelekanakis, general director of the Hellenic Aquaculture Association, said that the bill completes a series of legislative initiatives by the government since 2017, aimed at creating a more competitive institutional framework for the operation of the sector. “The use of the foreshore and the beach is absolutely necessary for the proper operation of aquaculture units, but also for the safety of the workers in them. And with this bill, the institutional framework for the concession of simple use, direct concession, and concession of the right to use the foreshore and beach for the execution of activities and projects of aquaculture units is being modernized,” said the representative of the Association of Greek Aquaculture Farmers.

The provisions of the bill were welcomed by Stavros Tokas, president of the Panhellenic Union of Small and Medium-sized Fish Farmers.