Yπ. Development: A grid of legislative moves for investment

By George Lampiris

Three bills of the Ministry of Development and Investment take the road to the Parliament in a row. The bill for the acceleration of strategic investments “Strategic Investments and Improvement of the investment environment through the acceleration of processes in private and strategic investments and the creation of a framework for companies” is already in the competent committee of the Parliament from Tuesday, while following the law Fair Development Transition and regulation of special de-lignification issues as well as the new development law.

Reduction of bureaucracy for large foreign investments

As far as the strategic investment bill is concerned, it favors the inflow of funds from abroad, where it is mainly a large investment, while the collection of the required supporting documents created long delays, the strategic investment bill simplifies the procedures. Now the volume of the required certificates is reduced, while a temporary license is given with a declarative act, so that they have the possibility to open a bank account, to hire staff and to submit the certificates within the time limit, so that in the meantime they can work. The aim is to facilitate large foreign investments.

As the Minister of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, stated in a relevant presentation to journalists, “The goal is to transform Greece into a business-friendly country and to get out of the mind of any investor that ‘when you go to Greece you will get involved'”. The new bill on strategic investments will open the investment field in Greece.

Integrated network of tools for business support

In addition, from January 1, 2022, the new regional aid map will be launched, which will strengthen the regional units, completing the network of tools to support businesses and creating the right vineyard to attract significant investments in Greece, such as Pfizer, Cisco, Teamviewer.

According to Nikos Papathanasis, Deputy Minister of Development, about 20% of Greeks who left abroad due to the economic crisis in Greece in recent years, return to work in large investments such as the above.

Papathanasis: The bill is a book on strategic investments

Regarding the draft law “Strategic Investments and Improvement of the investment environment through the acceleration of processes in private and strategic investments and the creation of a framework for tech-savvy companies”, Mr. Papathanasis characterized it as the book on strategic investments.

A key point of the strategic investment bill is the creation of a new information system with the aim of speeding up investment evaluation processes. It is noted that investment projects over 1 million euros will be under the Ministry of Development and under 1 million euros in the regions of the country.

The investment plans of 700 thousand euros will be obligatorily audited by a certified auditor in all schemes, with the possibility of auditing by the certified auditor, regardless of the type of investment.

As Mr. Georgiadis mentioned, among other things, the settlement of applications is now reduced to 60 days and the inclusion of the investment plan to 100 days.

In terms of investments in data centers, they aim to create a large community of innovation and high technology and training young people in new technologies, as mentioned by the Minister.

The bill for the Fair Development Transition

The draft law on the Fair Development Transition, which focuses on de-ligation, is being submitted to the Greek parliament this week. In this context, territorial plans for a fair development transition are being implemented in Western Macedonia, Megalopolis, as well as on the islands of the North and South Aegean and Crete. Part of the restoration will be channeled to industrial uses, however most of the restoration will concern recreation areas, lakes, green areas.

Implementing bodies will be the Special Service for Fair Development Transition as well as the company Metavasi SA. which will lease and manage the lands, maintaining the ownership of the State in them. A special service will prepare the central planning, will monitor all the projects that fall under the provisions of the fair development transition, will provide solutions for the rehabilitation projects, will manage the available resources and will facilitate the communication, supporting the activities of each area as well as those that arise through the programs. The Transition SA will receive the lands from PPC, will motivate companies to settle in these areas, will offer end-to-end services for those companies that want to settle in the areas that are being de-ligated. The intention of the Ministry of Development is to start the programs immediately. The program of Fair Development Transition starts from 1/1/2022, while with the passing of the law until December 8, the establishment of the involved bodies will begin, which will mark the beginning of the implementation programs.

In December in Parliament and the new development

The third bill that comes to Parliament in December is the development law. The aim is to include all the dynamic sectors of the economy, enabling the state to develop policies in sectors that can offer more jobs and support to the regions, through the regional aid map.

It includes 13 thematic regimes, including the fair development transition regime, which touch on the pillars of the Pissaridis plan and the pillars of the Greece 2.0 program – National Plan for Recovery and Competitiveness. The aim is to pave the way for companies that have not yet had access to the development law.

The 13 new thematic aid schemes of the new Development

-Digital and technological transformation of enterprises
-Research and applied innovation
-Strengthening tourism investments
-Green transition – environmental business upgrade
Agri-food-primary production and processing of agricultural products – fisheries
-Alternative forms of tourism
-New business
-Intrepreneurship 360o
-Processing – supply chain
-Large investments
– Fair development transition
-Business extroversion
-European value chains

Investment plans are now being transferred, enabling them to be completed with great simplifications. All the departments are utilized, as the procedures are accelerated where the control is done at the level of Regions, while at the level of legality control the Economic and Technical Chamber are used, abolishing the completeness control that is done directly by the system. The goal is to issue all decisions within 60 days.

Evaluation and control procedures

Evaluation and affiliation (60-70 days)
Submission of application for inclusion in the PS An.
Completeness check, legality, check by Evaluation Committee
Compilation of a temporary table
Submission of objections and examination of objections by the committee
Compilation of a final list and issuance of an affiliation decision

Check (60 days)
Submit a request for control
AIF up to 700 thousand euros
Sworn> 700 thousand euros
Report of a sworn OEE or sworn in
Issuance of certification decision