WRITTEN QUESTION P-2085/01

by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(5 July 2001)

Subject: Scandals involving the administration of the land register in Greece

The problems which have emerged in connection with the drawing-up of the land register in Greece are well known, and the Commission sent a corresponding letter to the Greek Government on 19 January 2001.

The dialogue between the Commission and the Greek Government on the funding arrangements for this project under the second CSF and possible funding under the third CSF is continuing. In the meantime I have been made aware of the following facts:

- Surveyors working on the project are paid on the basis of the rights declared, with the result that they are discovering rights which do not actually exist under property law. If a building is divided into flats, for example, the person making the declaration is told to declare separate property rights in respect of each individual flat, even though he actually holds a real right to the block of flats as a whole.

- Additional payment is planned on the basis of the number of documents forwarded, with the result that a file is opened for each right declared rather than one file containing all the papers relating to the rights declared.

- Surveyors are to receive additional payment for handling complaints. Consequently they have no interest in ensuring that public notifications are error-free.

- If, for example, a declared plot is not listed in the first notification because an inefficient member of staff was unable to locate it, the owner has no right to challenge the content of the first notification, which constitutes a fundamental breach of Article 6 of Law 2308/1998.

- In Castoria virtually all the files forwarded after the first notification have been deemed impossible to locate, with no provisional land register codes.

Is the Commission aware of these circumstances and what steps will it take to deal with the issue?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(4 September 2001)

The establishment of the land register in Greece is co-financed in the framework of the Operational Programme (OP) for the Environment adopted for the programming period 1994-1999. The responsibility for the management and control of this project remains with the Greek authorities, that have set up a special agency (Ktimatologio SA) to carry out the work.

Their duties towards the Commission as a funding partner are: to ensure the sound management of Community funds; to inform the Commission fully of progress in implementation in particular in the framework of the monitoring committee for the above mentioned OP; to seek the formal approval of the Commission for any substantial change in the definition of the project in the course of implementation.

In view of a lack of information, the Commission decided to open a formal enquiry within the terms of Article 24 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2082/93 of 20 July 1993 amending Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 laying down provisions for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88 as regards coordination of the activities of the different Structural Funds between themselves and with the operations of the European Investment Bank and the other existing financial instruments(1).

Accordingly, the Commission sent a letter to the Greek authorities on 19 January 2001, to which the Greek authorities replied on 11 February 2001. The Commission requested further clarifications by their letter dated 11 April 2001, to which the Greek authorities replied on 11 May 2001. The issues raised by the Honourable Member are well known to the Commission, and are being considered together with others, as part of this enquiry.

The Commission will now reply to the Greek authorities, with its evaluation of the situation. On the basis of this evaluation and the reaction of the Greek authorities, the Commission will reach its final conclusion, which is expected for the month of September 2001.

(1) OJ L 193, 31.7.1993.