With a scandalous decision of the Interministerial Committee for Strategic Investments and during the most critical moment of the government, the state decides to legalize “The Mall” shopping center owned by Lamda Development and located at Maroussi, Athens. Earlier this year, though, the State Council found that the constructions is illegal.

Almost ten years after the beginning of its operation, the Greek Supreme Court accepted the appeals of citizens of Maroussi, creating the opportunity for “The Mall” to get legitimate and avoid being demolished. The government seized the opportunity by giving permission to the largest arbitrary building in the country to be settled according to the laws and rules that apply to the strategic investments for fast track activities.

The legitimacy of the Mall has been launched since the beginning of 2014, but was delayed so as not to coincide with the developments in the construction tasks of Ellinikos area, which the company Latsis Group has undertaken and for which the government and the HRADF have received severe criticism during the recent months.

It should be noted that a decision of the State Council concerning the shopping centre of Lamda Development was announced earlier this year cancelling the 2003 settlement and signed by the then Minister of Culture Evangelos Venizelos forcing the company to start the process of legalization by carrying out a new environmental study.
Although the construction of the largest shopping centre in southeaster Europe which is owned by Lamda Development of Latsis Group, “The Mall”, is unconstitutional and illegal, it can be settled by recent decisions of the state, in order to avoid its demolition after more than a decade of operation.

The Parliament decided that the Ministry of Environment Energy and Climate Change in order to overcome the constitutional and legal issues raised can come up with later decisions which will include an Environmental Impact Assessment of the project justifying the need for a bigger built-surface ratio concerning the shopping centre.

The judges decided that the article 6 of Law 3207/2003 which provides twice of the allowable built-surface ratio opposes to the article 24 of the Constitution.

Also, the decision of court mentioned that the project does not follow the European Directive 85/337EEC

In the meantime, the state council annulled the building permit for the construction of the shopping centre, as it was invalid since the required environmental impact study was not provided.

It should be also noted that the building permit of “The Mall” was not issued by the competent agency of urban planning, but the permit was passed through the Law 3207/2003 which enabled the construction of the shopping centre of 75,000 square meters.