Mitsotakis: “The existing boundaries will be maintained in these settlements as they were engraved”
For all settlements under 700 inhabitants, practically the vast majority of settlement of the country, there will essentially be maintained by existing boundaries, as they were engraved a few decades ago, and therefore nothing changes at all, the prime minister stressed Kyriakos Mitsotakis Following a meeting with the relevant ministers, where it was decided to submit legislation that provides urban planning to settlements with less than 2,000 inhabitants.
The regulation was presented today at a meeting held by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the Minister of Environment and Energy Stavros Papastavrou and Deputy Minister Nikos Tagaras. This arrangement, which will be submitted to Parliament within the day, essentially maintain existing limits at more than 9 in 10 small settlements, protecting both the property rights of the owners and the demographic perspective of the Region.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a statement congratulated the ministry on the overall initiatives he has taken on critical issues of the country’s urban planning and said that an extremely ambitious plan is being launched, where the country will first acquire special spatial frameworks.
“And in the context of this very large, I often call it” silent “, reform, because it is not so high in the media, we come and resolve the issue that has been very concerned with public opinion, with the boundaries of the settlements, where there was enough misinformation About what he is doing and what the Presidential Decree does not do, which was published relatively recently, “the prime minister said, adding:
“And to put it in very simple words, as the minister said, for all settlements under 700 inhabitants, practically the overwhelming majority of the country’s settlements, the existing limits will be maintained, as they were engraved a few decades ago, so they do not change.
And for those settlements between 700 and 2,000 inhabitants a flexible tool will be created, which will also allow construction to segments which essentially occupy the existing z zonewith greater flexibility than that is now foreseen in off -plan construction. “
Mr. Mitsotakis also noted that with today’s announcements, For a very large part of the Greek population of the countryside, a significant uncertainty is resolved, A pendulum, and stressed that these provisions are necessary not only to get in the way to the space, “but to be able to support our countryside, our demographic policy and to encourage citizens, because not, to be able to return to their villages and do it at the highest possible speed.”
What does the arrangement predict
The arrangement provides for two new urban tools. The first, the settlement development zone, concerns communities with a population of up to 700 inhabitants, which are the very vast majority, and ensures the possibility of building up to the current boundaries. In this way, all villages of the territory are planted and about 93% of the settlements below 2,000 inhabitants.
The second tool, the usage control area, will cover settlements of 701 to 2,000 inhabitants and provides more favorable provisions than off -plan construction.
It is recalled that in about 150 settlements, in Rethymnon and Pelion, the Council of State canceled the limits that had previously been established by prefects decisions. This, on the one hand, led to a building inactivity, as not a single building permit was issued there, on the other hand, it was potentially questioned by the demarcation of the other settlements of the country, which are not institutionalized by a presidential decree.
The following presidential decree in April 2025 led to the security of law in the construction of the country’s settlements. However, after the rejection of Zone C by the CoE, the issue with the regional departments of the settlements remained open, which is now closing with the new legislation.
Papastavrou: “For the settlements up to 700 inhabitants, the possibility of building up to their current threshold is ensured”
Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou said: “A new legislation for settlements in the country below 2,000 residents, which will be submitted to Parliament later. An arrangement taking into account the needs of rural reinforcement and the great demographic challenge.
As is well known, by the decisions of the CoE of 2017 and 2019, the boundaries that had been instituted by decision of the prefect in 150 settlements in Rethymnon and Pelion were annulled, resulting in a urban inaction in the specific 150 settlements, but at the same time we have a 2,000 urban planning.
The presidential decree that followed, in April 2025, certainly leads to the security of law in the construction of these settlements, but after the rejection of Zone C by the CoE, the issue remained open with the regional sections of the settlements.
This is what we come today and resolve it, with the introduction of two new urban tools: for the settlements of up to 700 inhabitants, who are in the present case, they are the very large majority of the settlements, ensures the possibility of construction to the present limit, with the urban planning tool for the development of the area.
But for the rest of the settlements, from 701 inhabitants to 2,000, the urban planning tool of the usage control area is foreseen, which treats the construction more favorable in relation to the off -plan.
In this way, we resolve the regulatory ambiguity, enhance the perspective of small settlements, with respect to the identity and historical heritage of each place, for a spatial planning, developmentally strong and demographic optimistic. “