Island resort bill rejected
Legislation that would have allowed the construction of large tourist complexes on small islands and resorts on up to 10 uninhabited islets was voted down in Parliament Friday by deputies from all the parties.
The Environment Ministry bill proposed that the area which tourist resorts or holiday home complexes can cover on islands between 70 and 200 square kilometers in size should increase by five times. Currently, the law sets the limit at 0.2 percent of the island?s surface area. The ministry wanted to increase this to 1 percent. On islands that have a surface area of more than 200 sq.km, it proposed that the developments be allowed to cover 1 percent of the island for the first 200 sq.km and 0.5 percent for each square kilometer beyond that. The draft law also proposed that uninhabited islets be used for tourist resorts.
The bill drew criticism from Greece?s 10 biggest green organizations and numerous MPs who expressed concerns about the potential impact on the islands? environment.
