He strongly criticizes the decision to transfer Building Services (YDOM), namely Urban Planning departments, from municipalities to central administration under the Ministry of Environment and Energy. Grigoris Konstantellos, First Vice President of KEDE and Mayor of Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni, characterizes the decision as “institutionally flawed, politically unjust and practically ineffective,” noting that it attempts to justify itself as an anti-corruption measure based on just two cases of corrupt employees out of 187 urban planning departments nationwide. At the same time, he warns of legal action, emphasizing that municipalities will use every institutional and legal means available. “Let’s be honest: government policy cannot be based on exceptions and all municipalities cannot be collectively punished,” he characteristically notes when speaking to parapolitika.gr.
Read: Urban planning reform: Centralization or dead end for municipalities?
And he adds with a sharp tone: “It’s like saying that because a network was uncovered in Crete involving police officials, we should remove special forces units from the Ministry of Citizen Protection and integrate them into the Ministry of Education. Or that because a clinic director was arrested for bribery, we should remove medical services from hospitals.” He reminds that YDOM services were utilized by mayors, such as in his own municipality, in Alimos and elsewhere, to block the implementation of an abusive New Building Code (NOK) that allowed the construction of “monster buildings.” As he says, through innovative and ultimately effective use of YDOM, municipalities and KEDE appealed to the Council of State and were vindicated: the NOK was annulled and the character of cities was protected. “This stance was bothersome. And today we are being punished because we defended the public interest,” he notes.
“Institutionally flawed, politically unjust and practically ineffective” – the decision to transfer urban planning departments
Analyzing the arguments for keeping urban planning departments in municipalities, Mr. Konstantellos emphasizes that “it is not possible for the Land Registry, a state agency that has been underperforming for twenty years and has chronically embarrassed all governments, to decide on the form and character of our cities instead of elected municipal councils. This is institutional deviation.”
He presents in detail the current reality of urban planning departments:
- 90% of the permit issuance process is now fully digital.
- The responsibility for issuance lies with the private engineer – member of the Technical Chamber. They submit the application digitally, and the permit is issued automatically with the municipality’s logo, when the municipal building service has simply checked and certified the topographical diagrams and through them the land uses.
- Regarding compliance with permit requirements during construction phase, only about 3% of buildings undergo sample inspections.
- Violation inspections are now assigned to building inspectors appointed from Technical Chamber registries.
- Engineers can, if they wish, request pre-approval from the municipality, but this is rare.
“The ‘source of corruption’ cited by the government cannot be the municipalities. Municipalities simply maintain crucial control through certification of topographical surveys, and this control is the last barrier to protect the character of our cities,” he argues. And he wonders: “Why are municipalities targeted when the main burden of the process lies with engineers – members of the Technical Chamber? If we’re looking for the source of problems, shouldn’t we turn in that direction as well?”
At the same time, Mr. Konstantellos points out to parapolitika.gr that understaffing is the biggest problem: “Today there are YDOM departments where all the work falls on one or two people. An understaffed service is vulnerable to mistakes. Instead of being strengthened, they choose to abolish them. This is not reform, it is weakening.”
Referring to the institutional consequences of the decision and answering the question whether “the change downgrades the role of Local Government,” he is clear: “Undoubtedly, this is a blatant downgrade. Article 101 of the Constitution establishes the principle of decentralization. Article 102 is absolutely clear: local affairs belong to municipalities, which enjoy administrative and financial autonomy. The state has only legality control, not the right to arbitrarily remove critical competencies.”
“YDOM departments are not permit offices, they are tools for city protection. The municipality has the ability to control the scale of construction, prevent abusive interventions, defend public interest. If this is lost, municipalities become spectators,” he continues. And he warns that decisions about cities will now be made by a centralized state body, without knowledge of local needs and particularities.
The loss of the service, according to the KEDE Vice President and Mayor of Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni, directly affects citizens: “There is a visible risk of altering city identity. When you remove from the municipality its last control tool, you open the way to arbitrariness that is not accountable anywhere locally.”
Konstantellos: We will not allow urban planning departments to be removed from municipalities
Finally, Grigoris Konstantellos concludes with a clear stance: “Municipalities must stand dynamically upright and united against this development. We will not allow the right to protect our cities to be removed from Local Government. And we will use every institutional and legal means to prevent it.”
The new Spatial Planning and Urban Development Code, presented by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, concentrates and simplifies for the first time the scattered urban planning and spatial planning legislation. This is an institutional reform that attempts to address bureaucracy, rule ambiguity and unauthorized construction problems.
In this context, the government plans to transfer YDOM departments from municipalities to central administration, under YPEN control. This change is part of central reforms being promoted until 2025 and aims to improve urban planning operations with faster, more transparent and unified procedures.
However, this decision provokes intense reactions. From 2010 to today, most YDOM departments remain understaffed, with only 55% of municipalities having such services. Local Government demands that YDOM departments remain in municipalities, with staff reinforcement, technical support and utilization of inter-municipal cooperation, while proposing the development of a National Plan for upgrading and digitizing services instead of transferring them to the state.
