Council of State President Michail Pikramenos said that zoning regulations and building codes serve distinct functions. “The legislator should know that horizontal regulations in the building code turn it into urban planning, which is not its purpose,” he said during a discussion with Kathimerini’s editor in chief, Alexis Papachelas, at the forum “Environment & Construction: An Unequal Battle?” organized by the newspaper on Thursday.

His remarks responded to criticism, particularly from the Technical Chamber of Greece, which accused the country’s highest administrative court of interfering in policy making, after it ruled that the New Building Regulation (NOK) was unconstitutional. 

Pikramenos countered that the chamber should guide the Environment Ministry to avoid legislation conflicting with established case law. “It is a legal entity under public law and must advise the state to avoid errors that will lead to the annulment of laws,” he said.

Asked about urban planning authorities issuing building permits for out-of-plan old plots based solely on integrity, he reiterated that building permits require frontage on a public road, a rule in effect since 1985. He also opposed incorporating sparsely populated areas into urban zones, emphasizing that “settlements must be compact.”

Panels on NOK, islands

The forum included two more panels: One concerned the New Building Regulation and how it is changing our cities, with the participation of former minister of the environment Thodoros Skylakakis, the president of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), Giorgos Stasinos, the mayor of Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni, Grigoris Konstantellos, and architect and professor at the University of Patras Panos Dragonas. 

“We are fighting against those who [want to destroy] even the few cities that remain viable – and not buried in cement,” said Konstantellos, arguing that the NOK “was designed in the wrong way and at the wrong time.” The mayor said the so-called “ecological incentives” included in the NOK resulted in “monstrosities,” following an unclear guideline in 2019 that called for combined implementation of the regulations.

Skylakakis acknowledged that “an obvious mistake was made” when formulating the New Building Regulation, which “we corrected immediately, without any delay.” He acknowledged that “Attica is a huge slab of cement” compounded by the climate crisis. “The problems in construction are broader than those of the NOK,” the former minister said, adding that there is “extensive illegal construction” and “circles of corruption that feed it.” 

He also stressed that identifying illegal construction is the responsibility of the urban planning departments under the Ministry of the Interior and local government. “If we do not start the discussion from the existence of illegal construction, the discussion is undermined from the beginning,” he concluded.

For his part, Stasinos claimed that the recent ruling of the Council of Europe creates a sense of legal uncertainty, and referred to the example of a Chinese investor with a Golden Visa. “The building is being built, but then it is suspended, the permit is repealed, so the contracts must be torn up and the Chinese [investor] who got the Golden Visa must ‘become Chinese again.’”

On his side, Dragonas assessed that the over 10-year implementation of the NOK proved that it was not moving in the right direction.

The second panel concerned the protection of the islands, and included the governor of the South Aegean, George Hadjimarkos, the mayor of Sifnos, Maria Nadali, Ioannis Spilanis, emeritus professor at the University of the Aegean, the president of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), Yiannis Retsos, and lawyer Stathis Potamitis.

Spilanis argued that the exponential increase in tourism is essentially an increase in numbers and not economic development, noting that the lack of personnel in the tourism industry proves that working conditions are not attractive. 

Nadali stated that the future of the island must move toward highlighting its comparative advantages, adding the need to see if new buildings are legal. The mayor also noted that Sifnos’ municipal council voted unanimously against cave houses and swimming pools.

Hadjimarkos pointed out the structural change that he estimates that the urban development plans will bring. “For 204 years we have been struggling to obtain local urban plans. Right now, everything that is being done is being done almost in an improvised way,” he told the panel.

Asked whether the islands are now protected against illegal construction, he said that “leaps have been made in comparison to the past,” but local urban plans need to move forward.

Retsos mentioned Mallorca as an example of balanced development, from which Greece can learn, saying that “the licensing process is three times more expensive than in Greece, but it is clear what you have to do. If you break the law, construction stops and you cannot proceed.”

Finally, Potamitis advocated the simplification of urban planning legislation, so that any solutions are applicable.