Μake us preferred on Google Greece’s €600 million spatial planning program is intended to establish clear rules for land use and development across the country. Studies covering hundreds of municipal areas are progressing through various stages of preparation and review.
Yet one essential step remains unfinished: Not a single presidential decree has been issued to give the new spatial plans legal force.
The Local Spatial Plans and Special Spatial Plans, which will determine where and under what conditions residential areas, businesses and investment projects can be developed, have yet to complete the approval process.
The outcome will have direct implications for property values and how land can be used. The challenge now is not simply to complete the studies but to secure the necessary approvals and put the new planning rules into effect.
According to the final report on the Konstantinos Doxiadis program, which was included in Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Facility for approximately €600 million in funding, studies covering 595 municipal units have received favorable assessments.
The facility’s funding period ended in late August, but the process of formally adopting the new plans remains unfinished.
Funding Deadlines and Unfinished Work
Progress on the program was affected by tight deadlines imposed under the EU recovery fund.
In 2025, when Greece faced the risk of losing funding, the program’s milestones were revised, allowing the Environment and Energy Ministry additional time to complete most of the studies.
For the remaining work, representing approximately 40% of the original program, Greece committed to seeking alternative sources of financing.
An agreement reached with the European Commission two years ago also changed the requirements for meeting the program’s final milestone.
Under the agreement, studies could count toward that milestone once they had been submitted and reviewed by the relevant department of the Environment and Energy Ministry, even if they had not yet undergone public consultation or received final approval through a presidential decree.
The arrangement allowed more time for consultations with local communities, adjustments to the studies and the subsequent approval procedures required to formally establish the new spatial planning framework.
In addition to the Local and Special Spatial Plans, the program includes separate studies to identify areas eligible to receive transferred development rights, define settlement boundaries and classify municipal roads.
These studies are intended to help establish clearer rules for land development and spatial planning.
Spatial Planning Studies Cover Hundreds of Municipal Areas
According to the latest Environment and Energy Ministry progress report, dated July 2026, contracts had been signed for 221 of the 227 planned Local Spatial Plan studies.
The contracted studies, which were at various stages of implementation, cover 715 municipal units.
The report was prepared by the Technical Chamber of Greece, which is responsible for commissioning and implementing projects under the Konstantinos Doxiadis program.
The remaining six contracts, covering 16 municipal units, had not been signed and were therefore not expected to receive funding from the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
They concern the municipalities of Megalopolis, Oropos, Peristeri, North Kynouria, Agrinio and Kissamos.
For Megalopolis, the contract file had been submitted to the Recovery and Resilience Facility’s coordination authority for approval of the draft agreement. The Oropos file had been sent to the Court of Audit for review.
In the other four cases, the coordination authority had returned the documentation for corrections or additional information.
Mykonos and Santorini Plans Near Public Consultation
Progress has also been made on Special Spatial Plans, which are prepared for areas requiring tailored planning because of their particular importance, development characteristics or specific needs.
Eighteen contracted studies cover a total of 100 municipal units. Of these, 15 studies, covering 85 units, have received favorable opinions from the planning authority.
One of the 15 has already been forwarded to the Environment and Energy Ministry’s environmental permitting department for assessment.
The remaining three studies were at earlier stages of preparation. One was being presented to the relevant municipality with alternative planning scenarios, while two were still in their initial stages.
Among the more advanced studies are those for Mykonos and Santorini, both of which are expected to proceed to public consultation in the coming period.
Eight Athens Area Municipalities Await Consultation
Public consultations are also expected to begin shortly on Local Spatial Plans for eight municipalities in Attica, the region that includes Athens.
The municipalities are Galatsi, Nea Ionia, Nea Filadelfeia-Nea Chalkidona, Iraklio Attica, Metamorfosi, Lykovrysi-Pefki, Agia Paraskevi and Papagou-Cholargos.
Progress has also been recorded on the separate studies intended to complement the broader spatial planning framework.
One area concerns the classification of municipal roads, which affects whether plots alongside roads outside designated planning zones qualify for construction.
By the end of the Recovery and Resilience Facility funding period, completion certificates had been issued for road classification studies covering 654 municipal units.
Another seven studies, covering 268 municipal units, were underway, while one study covering 61 units had been submitted to the Environment and Energy Ministry.
Work was also continuing on studies to establish the boundaries of settlements. Two were in their initial phase, while 10 had reached the second stage of preparation.
Meanwhile, a study identifying zones eligible to receive transferred development rights across 83 municipal units has been submitted to the ministry and is expected to enter public consultation shortly.
Final Approval Remains the Main Challenge
Despite the progress made on the studies, the program’s success will ultimately depend on their formal adoption.
The aim is to establish a comprehensive spatial planning framework with clear rules governing land use and development, providing predictable conditions for investment and facilitating property development without putting environmentally sensitive areas or areas of particular residential value at risk.
Reaching that stage will require technical documentation, substantive consultation with local communities and further examination of the proposals before their approval through presidential decrees.
The remaining task is to translate the studies into a coherent, functional spatial planning framework, with development rules that can be applied in practice.
