According to a ruling of the Council of State plenum on Sunday, the building permit issued for famous "The Mall" shopping centre in Maroussi (a northern Athens suburb) is not valid. As such, Greece's supreme administrative court proposed a legal 'fix' in order to avoid having to tear down the building which is one of the most popular shopping malls in all of Greece.
After convoluted course through the judicial system lasting roughly ten years, the Council of State -suddenly- discovered that the permit allowing construction of the largest shopping mall in southeastern Europe was not, in fact, legal.
Under the Greek Constitution, the 75,000 square metre construction should have been preceded by the approval of an environmental impact study that was shockingly never carried out. Instead, permission for construction was granted to Lamda Development, (surprise surprise) owned by the Latsis group, through a law passed in 2003 that was then contested by local residents in Maroussi.
The Greek judicial system suddenly discovered that the 2003 law was unconstitutional (that is ten years later), considering that administrative acts like the issue of building permits cannot be established by law as this undermines the rights of citizens to judicial protection. While conceding the right of the relevant ministers to issue building permits by law, the judges stipulated that this should have been taken care of within the framework of Constitutional dictates as well as by using the same specifications that would apply if it was done via administrative act.
As such, the specific permit was judged invalid because there had been no environmental impact study, while the town planning study was inadequate and from what press reports say it was not properly explained either.
Not to worry, the judges proposed that an environmental impact study be carried out after the fact so that it can cure the legal weakness that has arisen, citing similar European Court of Justice rulings allowing such solutions. (or put a lid on things, in simple English)
A ruling is expected to be announced on September 17.
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