The decision of the Council of State (CoS), which briefly states that the Ministry of Environment must listen to the scientific opinion of NECCA, which means the existing scientific body, comes to close another trail that investors had carved out so that their investments -especially those of wind power plants- could be licensed despite the negative opinion of NECCA.

Over time, however, "path creation" is a common practice that investors develop supported by the politiciens. We were young and we got old.

Some years ago, in order to get a wind farm license, the interested party would submit the file with the studies either to the Ministry of Environment if it was a large-scale project or to the Decentralised Administration for a smaller-scale project. In those years it was difficult to get a large wind power plant license through the Ministry of Environment, either due to the informed and specialized competent employees not bound by local politics, or energy was not at its peak as a development pillar of the country, etc. However, some projects were licensed and even in a related case in the Council of State, with a negative opinion of NECCA, the extracted decision was: to trust in the judgment of the administration! A neutral decision that suited all cases.

In those years it was easier to get a small project approved by the Decentralized Administration, either it was welcomed by the local government, or the responsible employees read for the first time EIAs and SΕΕ or even administration did not understand what the future occupation that would occur in the mountains of their region, etc. Thus the trail of “fragment a large project into smaller ones to easily pass through the Decentralized Administration” was carved out. Along the way, negative opinions from regional authorities began to be issued, resulting in the rejection of projects by the Decentralized Administration, due to the pressure from environmental organizations, the more informed employees, the reactions from the community, etc. And this created problems in accessing the trail.

In the meantime the former Management Bodies of the National Parks now NECCA, based on the data from the monitoring of the ecological values of the areas, started to write scientifically opinions which the other competent opinion-giving authorities were waiting for in order to be coordinated. And this created problems in accessing the trail too. But a way out was found, in every meeting of the decentralized administration a representative from the Ministry of Environment participated with the mission to turn the result of the decision into a positive way despite the negative opinion of OFYPEKA and perhaps some other competent bodies.

With the decision of the Council of State, the effort of some Municipal Authorities to protect their areas is recognized and moreover the scientific work of NECCA is retained, closing one more trail. Which new path will be discovered by the investors with the political support as usual, so that projects can be licensed in a Greece without national plan for RES, with a surplus of energy production from RES and with electricity that we pay for like gold.Read the decision of the CoS here.