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Demolition of illegal buildings to begin mid-September

The Ministry of Environment will call on local government authorities to hand over a list of illegal construction which court decisions have verified and will see to it that all such structures are torn down, if need be by its own services, the minister said on Monday.

Environment and Energy Minister Socratis Famellos told Praktoreio 104.9 FM, the radio station of the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), that the Ministry of Infrastructure will help in cases of illegal fencing off of land lying up to 500 meters from the shore. This will speed up the tearing up process, Famellos said.

The minister said that the local authorities will have a 10-day deadline to turn over to the ministry all cases with final judgements for demolition. There are at least 3,000 such cases of illegal building, and some 800 of these relate to construction on the beach or in forest land, he noted.

For these 800, demolition is expected to begin around mid-September, he said.