“Regarding the ‘silent reform in the organization of space, land use and the relevant government agencies,” writes Minister of State Akis Skertsos.

As he notes in his introduction, “the recent dismantling by the Police Internal Affairs Service of of a ring of corrupt officials in Attica who were extorting private citizens for the issuance of building permits has understandably raised questions and outrage: ‘What on earth is going on with the local urban planning authorities?’

The details of the case brought to mind the chronic problems that have long plagued the relationship between citizens and urban planning authorities: delays, lack of transparency, personal connections, “bribes,” and under-the-table deals that flourish when procedures are slow, legislation is convoluted, and accountability is diffuse.”

However, he continues, three examples “from the past 12 months alone demonstrate that, in recent years, the government has been methodically implementing a quiet reform in the organization of space, land use, and the relevant government agencies—a reform that has not been highlighted or communicated to the extent that it should have been.”

These are:

“June 2025: The Ministry of the Interior announces the results of the first digital survey evaluating public services by citizens themselves. This confirms something we already knew from experience. 65,000 citizens rate municipal building services below the passing grade due to delays, bureaucracy, corruption, and understaffing.

”September 2025: The prime minister announces a landmark reform for 2026 from the podium at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair (TIF). The integration of the decentralized and unregulated municipal building departments into the new digital land registry agency. The goal—following the model of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) regarding the management of tax matters—is to verticalize, simplify, digitize, and accelerate the building permitting process on a supra-local level.

“May 2026: The Hellenic Cadastre announces that, for the first time in nearly 200 years of the Greek state’s existence, the cadastral survey of Greek territory has been completed to 99%. This is a reform aimed at development and transparency that we have already linked, as a contractual obligation of the country starting in 2021, to the European Recovery and Resilience Fund.

“But why, given that the country’s cadastral survey has been under discussion since the time of Kapodistrias, did it take nearly 200 years to move forward?,” he asks, and answers with an explanation:

“Because this is perhaps the most difficult administrative reform the Greek state has ever undertaken. Greece did not have the advantage enjoyed by many European countries, which already had organized land registries dating back to the 19th century. Instead, it inherited fragmented smallholdings, incomplete title deeds, adverse possession, inheritances without contracts, hundreds of uncoordinated land registries, and a system of registration based on individuals rather than properties.

“At the same time, there has historically been a fragmentation of responsibilities, political discontinuity, a lack of stable funding, constant legislative changes, and a massive backlog of pending court cases. Simply put, it wasn’t just digital technology that was missing. What was missing was a unified administrative plan, as well as the legislative and cartographic framework clearly defining property rights, land uses, and designated building zones.

”Thanks to the quiet spatial and urban planning reforms of recent years, the country is acquiring, for the first time, a comprehensive land registry, ratified forest maps, a systematic survey of the foreshore and beaches, digital demarcation of watercourses, special spatial plans for tourism, industry, and renewable energy, Local Urban Plans in hundreds of municipal districts, and a Unified Digital Map that aims to bring together all critical spatial information in one place.

»How many people know, for example, that thanks to the Recovery Fund reforms, the country’s 392 land registries were abolished by 2024 and 620 million pages of their records have been digitized and transferred to the Land Registry’s cloud?”

Furthermore, he adds, “the reform of the Land Registry is not independent of urban planning reform. The model of centralization, digital traceability, uniform rules, and supra-local management applied to the Land Registry now serves as the guide for the transformation of the building control system as well.

»The figures showing the drastic reduction in pending cases brought about by the centralization and digitization of the Land Registry vividly illustrate why this is the only path forward for urban planning as well. In Athens, the number of pending cases has dropped from 56,000 to approximately 4,500 today. In Thessaloniki, it has fallen from 60,000 to approximately 5,600. Digital tracking of each case speeds up the process and curbs administrative arbitrariness.

“The significance of these changes goes far beyond their administrative dimension. They concern the very development prospects of the country. And these are not reforms inspired from abroad. They are reforms of Greek origin that were implemented by the Greek public administration and by dedicated civil servants.

»The Recovery Fund financed these changes, measured their impact, and, above all, accelerated them. It transformed decades-long goals into projects with specific completion dates.

Perhaps this is why the current period may prove to be historic. For the first time since the founding of the Greek state, the country appears to have a realistic chance of simultaneously answering the three fundamental questions regarding the organization of space: who owns the space, what the space is, and what is permitted within the space.

“Our goal is to complete this effort by the end of the decade so that we can speak of an institutional breakthrough that will boost development, curb corruption, and resolve a national issue that has been pending for nearly two centuries,” he emphasizes.

And, “no economy can grow sustainably until it has resolved these outstanding issues. Uncertainty in this area acts as a disincentive to investment, increases transaction costs, and undermines legal certainty.

”Corruption works in the same way. It thrives on bureaucracy and lack of transparency and constitutes an invisible tax that burdens citizens and businesses. The more opaque the procedures are, and the more they depend on personal connections and local networks of influence, the greater the scope for arbitrary practices.

»That is why the answer cannot simply be repression and arrests. The real answer is to change the system. And this is precisely the silent reform that has been underway in recent years: less personal discretion, more digitization, more transparency, and stronger central control,” concludes the Minister of State.