Galery

1

After voting on the respective law, from now on the organization "Invest in Greece" will act as a "one-stop service" (one-stop shop) within the procedure for licensed stimulation of investments. It will take orders from investors and will carry out all lawful action to complete the procedures for issuing the necessary permits or granting of other licenses needed to start the realization of investments amounting to over two million (2,000,000 euro), which belong to category A of art. 1, para. 1 of law 4014/2011 (Α '209). For this purpose it will receive the file of the investment project, it will be responsible for completing the necessary documents from the investor and send them to the competent authorities, which will be obliged to undertake early implementation of appropriate action.

These institutions must also provide the company with written information each month about the stage at which the respective procedures are and also about the reasons for the delay or the inability to issue permits or licences.

The draft clearly states that the relevant departments and organizations in the state and the wider public sector must provide "Invest in Greece" any information, data and facilities for the realization of its objective under this statute with absolute priority.

Changes in the National Strategic Reference Framework

The bill contains changes to the operation of the programmes under the NSRF according to which for the first time an advance payment of 10% is allowed for the contractor of each project from the 3rd and 4th programming period. Also for the first time the granting of scholarships to people with secondary education is allowed, using money from the structural funds.

Development Act

In another provision of the law a one year extension of the deadline will be given for the implementation of investment plans that are subject to the provisions of laws 2601/1998 (Α-81) and 3299/2004. The extension in question is granted beyond what is provided in Art. 18, para. 5, of law 4013/2011, which applies to investment projects under law 2601/1998.

Investment projects for the production of electricity from solar energy submitted to the Ministry of Development before 29-1-2010, and completed before the publication of this law shall be considered under the provisions of law 3299/2004. The realization of investment projects will be demonstrated by applying the protocol for connecting to the National Electricity Company.

By decision of the Minister of development, a single high value has been set for the investment projects producing electricity from solar energy at their beginning and their end. The criteria for this are: the implementation period, their nominal power, the type of equipment, and additional characteristics.

Reviewing the investment projects requires the submission of the relevant application by the interested party within three months from the date of entry into force of this Act.

Study of ancient monuments

The bill also takes care of the acceleration of archaeological studies that precede the beginning of implementation of each project.

On this issue, the law provides that the contractor of the project must appoint a representative. He must be in constant contact with the Office for Coordination and monitoring of archaeological activities within larger projects, part of the Ministry of Culture, in order to resolve issues of any type, which may arise in connection with the preservation of ancient monuments and archaeological studies and which are required for the implementation of large commercial projects under existing legislation.

A standard memorandum of understanding and cooperation is prepared for the monitoring and implementation of archaeological activities, and activities related to the conservation and display of archaeological finds discovered during the implementation of large private projects.