POMIDA notes that with this decision several of its requests are satisfied , which he has put to the political leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since last year, and the implementation of which was announced by Mr. Hatzidakis in January from the floor of its 37th Congress. new forest maps. The procedures for the reformation of the forest maps posted before the implementation of the new environmental law (including partially or fully sanctioned ones) are foreseen. The same procedures also concern the forest maps which were being posted and are now being reformed and will be posted within the next two months (9/30). The procedures for the quick examination of obvious errors and objections are also foreseen.
On this issue, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostis Hatzidakis, made the following statement:
“With the with this decision we complete the new institutional framework for forest maps established by environmental law 4685/2020. We are dealing with the problems and distortions found so far in the preparation of forest maps and we are putting an end to the irrationality of the state and the suffering of the citizens.
We are putting an end to the irrationality of the state, which since the time of Eleftherios Venizelos or of Constantinos Karamanlis has granted by official decisions lands to farmers, considering them not to be forest, with the forest maps challenged its own decisions.
It is no coincidence that 170,000 families objected to forest maps in half of the territory. With the Ministerial Decision, clear rules are set in application of the new law in order to provide simple and fair solutions for the matter”. , of the technical specifications and the procedure for ex officio revision, preparation and posting of the forest maps according to article 48 of the law. 4685/2020 (Government Gazette A 92)”, among others:
1. The acts of the administration (administrative acts) that are now incorporated in the new forest maps are recorded. These acts become a basic and integral element of the forest maps for the correct depiction of the nature of the lands.
Thus, the lands that lost their forest character before 1975 are recorded and demarcated for the first time, by legal acts of the administration and today they maintain the use attributed to them, as a result of which they are not considered to be governed by the provisions of the forestry legislation. These administrative acts are:
– Decisions of the Commissions of Expropriations for all the lands seized, which yielded agricultural, livestock or mixed (agricultural) use.
– Concessions of agricultural lots issued pursuant to agricultural legislation.
– Decisions sanctioning distributions and redistributions for all of lands mentioned in the relevant cadastral charts, which bear a distinct parcel number and were assigned agricultural, livestock or mixed (agricultural) use. purchase and sale of agricultural land with agricultural or livestock or mixed (agricultural) use.
– Decisions of the Minister of Agriculture on the allocation of land in accordance with the provisions of the Agricultural Code.
– Permits of the Minister of Agriculture to conclude agreements for the voluntary transfer of arable land to landless cultivators or to sanction those already concluded , according to the Agricultural Code.
– Decisions of Expropriation Committees on concession agricultural public estates (Imliakia), orchard estates, acquired plantings and planting lands of Crete.
– Decisions on the disposition of properties purchased by the State, pursuant to special laws.
– Special Agricultural Registers (Viticultural and Olive Oil Register), which include lands which occupied by legal acts of the Administration.
– Administrative acts referring to land expropriations and transfers for the purpose of industrial or touristic development or permits for the installation of productive industrial units or touristic units and their related operating permits, regardless of the organ from which were issued.
– Also, acts of the Administration (decisions of the Prefect, Presidential Decrees) defining boundaries settlements, in accordance with the provisions of the presidential decrees 21.11/1.12.1979 (D΄ 693), 2.3/13.3.1981 (D΄ 138) or 24.4/3.5.1985 (D΄ 181). The areas for which there are approved town plans or are occupied by settlements, the boundaries of which have been approved by acts of the Administration, in accordance with the provisions of the presidential decrees 21.11/1.12.1979 (D΄ 693), 2.3/13.3.1981 (D ΄ 138) or 24.4/3.5.1985 (΄ 181) or are located within the limits of approved town planning studies or street plans and as these limits have been applied to the land or are buildable areas of the residential areas of the law. 947/1979 or are areas of Organized Receptors of Manufacturing and Business Activities, organized in accordance with the provisions of law. 4458/1965, as amended by n. 742/1977, as well as the provisions of n. 2545/1997 and as defined in par. 4 of article 41 of n. 3982/2011 (Α΄ 143) for which their demarcation or landscape plan has been approved or are areas of industrial craft facilities that are included in residential control zones of article 29 of the law. 1337/1983 (A’ 33), with regard to the properties on which businesses have been established, following valid licenses or other administrative acts covered by the presumption of legality or certificates or other documents of an informative nature of the competent Forester or the Director of Forestry that do not fall under in a forest or forest area.
2. It is provided that, for the collection of the relevant administrative acts are handled by the General Directorate of Forests and Forest Environment of the Ministry of Environment and Energy. In this context, the digital data file of AGROGI S.A. will be gathered by Ministries and other agencies of the Central Government and Local Government, through the Organization for Payments and Control of Community Aid Guidance and Guarantees (OPEK Ltd.) and other available geospatial data for displaying administrative acts that must be displayed in the new foresters maps.
The prioritization of said digital data is determined as follows:
1. Data from digital files of entities that issued the deeds.
2. The digital data file of AGROGI SA
3. Position on the unified cartographic backgrounds of the “Hellenic Land Registry”.
4. Data “Hellenic Land Registry”.
5. Data provided by citizens.
6. Registers that include the administrative acts.
3. The forest maps are reformed, at whatever stage of the sanctioning process they are in, in order to include the prescribed administrative acts. In this context, the forest maps that were posted before the entry into force of the new environmental law (including partially or fully sanctioned ones), after being reformed and corrected, will be posted again in their entirety.
4. Applications for correction of obvious errors, on the posted forest maps, shall from now on be submitted exclusively electronically, on the website of the Hellenic Land Registry (par. 11 of article 13 of law 3889/2010) within 105 days of the invitation being posted (par. 1 of article 15 of law 3889/2010).
5. Also, in compliance with the recent jurisprudence of Council of State, the tens of thousands of applications for the correction of obvious errors that had been submitted and rejected (either implicitly, or because they were not considered fall into the category of correcting obvious errors) are referred, with the diligence of the Administration, to be examined as timely objections by the Objection Review Committees (EPEA) of the forest maps. Thus, the affected citizens regain the right to present and examine their presented claims. The Forest Directorates will forward, with their diligence, the relevant applications to the EPEA for examination, with simultaneous information to the administrator. This procedure will also be followed for the new correction requests, which will no longer be rejected, but will be referred to be examined as objections. period of 105 days – those citizens who had not raised an objection, while those who had, may submit additional claims regarding the legal change of use, according to with the beneficial provisions of article 48 of the law 4685/2020.
