The great national effort aimed at spatial planning is in full swing reform of the area is highlighted in the RES – BEE by the Deputy Minister of the Environment and EnergyNikos Tagaras.
Specifically, Nikos Tagaras referred to the major urban planning and spatial planning reform of the regional and local planning plans of the territory, speaking of a project of historical importance that has never been done before in our country.
He characterized the initiatives of the Ministry as a project that acquires even greater importance after the recent decisions of the Council of State, which highlighted new parameters affecting spatial and urban planning. “Everything that evolves must be specific, secure and applied in the same way by everyone,” he noted, stressing that there can no longer be gray areas and backlogs.
Central tools in this process are the Local and Special Town Planning Plans, as well as the characterization of roads as common users, which will function in a complementary way, in order to provide a definitive solution to historical problems of buildability for 70% of the Greek territory.
“With these tools, there is finally a way out with legal certainty, without canceling licenses, in a clean and transparent environment, where everyone will know what is allowed and what is not,” he said.
In fact, as he made known, in 2026 it is expected to complete the registration of the existing roads that will be classified as public through a Presidential Decree, a process that, for the first time, is proceeding with full documentation and the possibility of corrections. At the same time, the reorganization of the Construction Services (YDOM) is being considered, as today only 56% of municipalities have relevant services — and of these, a third are under-functioning.
As Mr. Tagaras noted, “the goal is a substantial change and not just the simplification of the process, speeding up, digitalization and ensuring the rule of law, so that investors only deal with the risk of the investment and not with the fear of invalidity”.
In this sense, the simplification of the New Building Regulation, the codification of the legislation, the digitization of the town planning records and the interconnection of the systems for permit checks are underway. Mr. Tagaras noted that the control by building inspectors will soon be extended beyond the constructions to the studies of the building projects. At the same time, he emphasized that the implementation of the new mechanism for controlling the built environment and effectively dealing with arbitrary construction with the use of new digital tools and the use of artificial intelligence is in full progress.
He also emphasized that urban renewal projects with a total budget of more than 1.5 billion euros are underway and are being launched, while as he said the Central Construction Service (KYDOM) is being staffed, with the aim of putting an end to arbitrariness and limiting the failures of the past, through tools of a new era for the country’s urban planning.