Fast-track legislation for Skaramangas privatization

A finance ministry draft bill has been released for public debate – until June 20 – of legislation, which includes nine articles dealing with the privatization of the Hellenic Shipyards at Skaramangas.

The center-right Greek government aims to push the draft bill through parliament via a fast-track process, meaning a vote by a plenary session at the end of June.

Several ministries are co-sponsors of the draft bill, while the entire privatization is legally designated as “strategic”.

A corporate entity controlled by well-known Greek shipping magnate George Prokopiou last July submitted the highest bid for Hellenic Shipyards (ENAE or HSY) at the Skaramangas industrial hub, west of Piraeus.

The Prokopiou group submitted a bid of 37.3 million euros for property adjacent to the Skaramangas shipyard. That property was included in a portfolio held by the Hellenic Public Properties Company (HPPC) S.A.

The privatization had been delayed for several months after the nearby municipality of Haidari, in a peculiar lawsuit, claimed that a pier at the shipyards – a facility that has operated in that capacity since 1952 – should be considered as a municipal seafront for public use.

Greece’s Council of State (CoS), the country’s highest administrative court, recently ruled that it has no jurisdiction over such a legal challenge, given that it involves land use and ownership.
Essentially, the CoS ruling cleared the way for the privatization.