A draft law that seeks to speed up the process of completing Greece’s land registry also contains a provision that could create extra paperwork, as it calls for public property to be entered onto the cadastre.

Although the process of creating Greece’s first full land register started almost 20 years ago, there has been no organized effort to record state property on the list. This has created numerous complications over the last few months as the government tries to clear up possible legal wrangles over land that it wants to include in the privatization process.

The bill also seeks to simplify the process by which companies are awarded public contracts to carry out land surveys by removing one stage from the tender process. This should reduce the period needed to assign a survey from a maximum of 20 months to eight months and was one of the steps recommended by experts from various countries that were invited, via the European Union Task Force, to provide technical expertise to the government.

The draft law also puts an end to the need for citizens to sue both the state and third parties when they feel they have a claim to land that has been registered in another’s name. Once the bill is passed, the appeals process will involve one case rather than two.