Through our service, you can post all the relevant decisions relating to the designation or non-designation of land, change of land use, expropriations, change of street plans and more. The circular by the Special Secretary for Forestry on posting such decisions in the newspapers appears below.
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The information appearing below does not constitute legal advice and is provided for informational purposes only.
The following procedure must be followed for the designation of an area, according to the Ref. No. 173381/3394/17-8-2011 Circular of the Special Secretary for Forestry on posting informational documents:
In accordance with the No. 88416/529/1-12-2000 Circular, instructions have been provided on the obligation to print informational documents issued in the past by the forest authority as to the designation of an area, so that, after the disclosure formalities imposed by Article 14, Law 998/79 have been met, said documents may carry legal consequences against all parties.
From the progress of the relevant cases so far, it has been established that the aforementioned posting procedure carried certain operational shortfalls, pertaining to the non-timely notification of the chief forester ranger with regard to the posting by third parties of the acts issued by him. As a consequence, the Administration was not being informed on the posting of said acts, and the Secretary-General of Decentralised Administration (formerly known as Prefect) was not able to file objections to Forest Disputes Settlement committees, in the context of the judicial procedure stipulated in Article 14, Law 998/79, as specifically stipulated in paragraph 3 of said article, due to the expiry of the deadline laid down by the provision in question.
This fact led to the formation of fait accompli situations with regard to the Administration meeting the deadlines, and to the requirement of the parties interested to demand a final certification for land designation, without, however, the Secretary-General of Decentralised Administration having further investigated the possibility of using the privilege given to them by law to lodge objections against the acts issued by the chief forest ranger for land designation if they do not agree with their content. This raises the issue of incorrect application of the provision of Paragraph 3, Article 14 of Law 998/1979 - without liability of the chief forest ranger.
To resolve these issues and to safeguard the Administration’s actions, the following procedure must be followed when posting informational documents on area designation:
In the context of their capacity when it comes to land designation, the competent chief forester rangers (when a local forest authority does not exist, this role is assumed by the prefecture’s forest directors) are responsible for posting informational documents (state posting) as well as drafting the summary to be printed by third parties, so as to enable the persons concerned to accelerate the disclosure formalities, since it is not explicitly specified otherwise in the provisions of the law.
Note that the summary drafted by the chief forest ranger is printed, along with the relevant notice, and not the summary prepared by the interested party based on the chief forest ranger’s act. The announcement of the act and the summary of its content are publishable public documents, which naturally cannot be drawn up by a third party.
The newspaper containing the notices is then submitted to the chief forest ranger to inspect the posting, with the interested party being liable for updating the case file and complying with the procedure referred to in Paragraph 3, Article 14 of Law 998/79, wherever required.
The informational document is sent through administrative channels to the competent municipal office for posting; however, the interested party may expedite this procedure. In any case, the municipality must send proof of posting directly to the competent forest authority (when a forest authority does not exist, then to the prefecture’s forest directorate), so they may be notified of the deadlines for filing objections and to inform the Secretary-General of Decentralised Administration. Note that this action is an obligation stipulated in Paragraph 2, Article 14 of Law 998/79, with regard to the competent Administration officials meeting deadlines and filing objections as to the designation of area, and the municipality is liable for any undue negligence in this regard, as well as any delay which leads to failure to meet deadlines.
The Secretaries-General of Decentralized Administrations within Greece are kindly requested to urge the municipalities to comply with the aforementioned provisions, by pointing out the relevant obligations to the municipalities under their jurisdiction.
