Since there are thousands of houses that have been built on non-permitted lands creating the well-known “residential concentrations” which were highlighted by the posting of forest maps, the “bulldozing” operation is impractical. Thus, the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work out the appropriate ways so that, on the one hand, the owners this time actively participate in the process and on the other hand, there will be no involvement with the Council of State.
As explained by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Theodoros Skylakakis, in response to a question of the “Free Press” following the conclusion of the press conference on the forestry policy, “the ministry will be ready in the coming months to bring regulation for residential densities but given that the forest arbitrary there are thousands, you understand that we might not say that we are demolishing them all” and added that “our concern is that any regulation that is submitted is in accordance with the Council of State and that is why the policy for forests is our priority”.
During the press conference, the minister, referring to residential density, pointed out that “the policy on residential density has so far not brought results”, while he clarified that “there is a record of them through the forest maps, but there has been no record, arbitrary, arbitrary, i.e. what happens within residential concentrations. Obviously a new policy is needed for this.”
As he said, the priority of the Ministry of Environment today is to convince the CoE that more and more forests are being managed and protected and to encourage the creation of new forests.
It is worth noting that the current system for mapping, recording and legalizing residential concentrations was first established in 2016 by the then Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Yannis Tsironis.
2,772 statements
The previous but failed attempt to register and settle forest abuses expired on March 31, 2023 having even received a three-month extension. The relevant platform in the Land Registry had been opened for the first time on October 5, 2022 and interested owners had been invited to submit their applications initially by the end of the year, in order to “win” the freeze on administrative fines including the temporary exemption from demolition, paying a fee of 250 euros.
The ministry then estimated that the participation would be huge, which would even exceed 1 million applications. In the first quarter when the process was “running”, regarding 620 final applications were submitted. Thus, another credit of time was given until the end of March, which put an end to the process with regarding 3,000 applications.
In particular, according to data from the Land Registry, by the last day of the deadline, 2,772 declarations had been submitted, which correspond to 382,653 illegal square meters. Attica was the champion in declarations with 2,094 declarations and 301,353 sq.m. arbitrary in forests and woodlands. Corinthia followed with 253 declarations and 29,226 illegal square meters and Evia with 106 declarations and 15,964 square meters. arbitrary.
The reluctance of the owners to participate in the process was attributed to the scenario that a portion of the citizens estimated that another extension would be given, but mainly to the fact that the demolition of illegal buildings is not something that happens in Greece.
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The Ministry of Environment and Energy, in an attempt to record forest encroachments, had introduced a regulation through which the owners of the properties in question might, once morest a fine, proceed with a regularization process.
In particular, through the Land Registry’s electronic platform for residential density, citizens had the opportunity to submit an application with a fee of 250 euros and if it was finally confirmed by the completion of the forest maps that these are not residences located within forest areas, they would achieve the final approval their legalization.
For those who would get the green light, they would have the opportunity to keep their residence for 30 years but would pay a fine that would depend on economic and technical studies. The legalization fine would be calculated using a mathematical formula, based on the value, age, area and class of the property.
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