Greece Adopts New Spatial and Urban Planning Law to Standardize Regulations and Enhance Transparency

Greece Unveils New Spatial and Urban Planning Law for Transparency and Growth

The Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, along with his deputy Nikos Tagaras, today presented to the Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the draft New Spatial and Urban Planning Law. According to the Ministry of Environment and Energy, this law represents the first comprehensive and unified guide to spatial and urban planning rules in Greece. It marks a historic step in modernizing and consolidating old and fragmented regulations into a single, flexible text.

The Ministry of Economic Development stated that the new law provides a stable and reliable planning framework that supports economic growth while ensuring social justice and environmental responsibility. It also frees citizens and investors from bureaucracy and uncertainty experienced in recent years.

The new law offers engineers, lawyers, and all citizens clear rules regarding construction, land use, and urban renewal. It simplifies administrative procedures, strengthens legal certainty, and reduces arbitrariness. Instead of dozens of scattered laws, the legislation consolidates all regulations into a single document written in clear and simplified language.

This initiative aims to simplify the lives of citizens and engineers, enhance transparency, reduce bureaucracy, and apply uniform rules that protect the environment and promote sustainable development. Among the most significant changes is the abolition of all old laws and their integration into the new law, including the repeal of the 1985 Civil Code and the incorporation of its remaining provisions to ensure continuity and legal clarity.

The law contains 477 articles across 9 sections, covering land and maritime spatial planning, urban rehabilitation, plan implementation and expropriations, construction and land-use rules, building permits, hazardous buildings, urban policy and national strategies, and collective bodies. It was prepared by a committee of local and international experts and will be submitted for parliamentary vote in September.

To facilitate access to the legal text, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, in collaboration with the University of Patras, has created a free electronic legal database. It allows analytical search, access to articles and attachments, and seamless navigation between sections, with continuous updates for every amendment to the law.

This law represents a crucial step toward achieving legal stability, transparency, and environmental protection. It provides a modern institutional tool that meets societal needs and sustainable development challenges, limits arbitrary construction, and ensures the application of uniform rules nationwide.