The latest legal obstacle thrown in the path of Greece’s biggest real estate development – and possible the largest in Europe at present – came this week with yet another lawsuit by more than 500 plaintiffs and two environmental advocacy groups, an effort aimed to stop the Helleniko privatization.
Coming several months after the Council of State (CoS) upheld the legality of a presidential decree opening the way for the more than seven-billion-euro investment, the highest administrative court will once again be the judicial venue for efforts to stop the iconic project.
The lawsuit argues that the presidential decree is unconstitutional and illegal in relation to the part referring to a “forest” or “reforested” area of 24.3 hectares.
The abandoned Helleniko site in coastal southeast Athens once hosted the greater Athens area’s only commercial airport, two airbases, various other state services and, most recently, several 2004 Olympic venues. Nary a speck of green space can be spotted at the site today, with concrete tarmacs, dilapidated buildings and arid fields dominating. At one point in 2015 surrounding municipalities, where many of the plaintiffs in the latest lawsuit reside, had planned to use a portion of the site as a reloading hub for municipal refuse.
The Helleniko project is a landmark memorandum-mandated privatization and judged as a “litmus test” for the current leftist-rightist coalition government’s volition to push through major works and private investments.
