Plan to tackle illegal beach occupation
The government will aim to bring order to the images of unauthorized occupation of public space that are reflected on many beaches, and have elicited angry reactions from residents and visitors alike, with strict controls for the remaining portion of the current tourism season.
Relevant instructions have already been issued so that within the next few months a new framework for the distribution of responsibilities will be established and will be in force for the next tourist season.
The main aim is doing away with the division of responsibilities, which serves to avoid responsibility and perpetuate illegality.
The situation at many Greek beaches with the violations of the terms of use of coastal areas has sparked protests from the public and, in some cases, the degradation of Greece’s tourist product.
The goal is to strengthen the responsibilities of one of the departments concerned, which will assume a supervisory role over all others and will be ultimately responsible for overseeing legality implementation.
Tellingly, a total of eight bodies and services are involved in licensing, monitoring compliance with legality, confirming any arbitrary acts and infringements, and imposing fines.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told Skai on Thursday that “the implementation of the law is above all and there will be no discount on this anywhere.”
“What we will see as the next step, in order to make it even faster and to deliver a beach much faster to the citizens, is to impose the appropriate fines when there is a violation, and that is why we need the simplification, the unification of these procedures, in order to have the best possible results,” he said.
In order to activate the process of checking, establishing and certifying violations, and imposing fines, five to six different agencies and departments need to be coordinated, according to government sources.
They noted that this often makes it very difficult to carry out the required checks in time, while it also makes it possible, where appropriate, for some people to hide behind the fragmentation of responsibilities and not to carry out effective checks, thus allowing the perpetuation of irregularities.
