Positive Reforms in Business Licensing Procedures – Further efforts required
After seven years of reforms in business licensing procedures, the situation has improved, but collective efforts are still required for the transformation of the “licensing experience”. The recent reforms assessed as “positive, yet there is much work to be done” according to the remarks of SEV‘s General Council meeting held on 24 October 2018. The President of SEV, Mr. Fessas, underlined that “we have not yet reached the point that businesses demand: to know in advance where they can set up their activity, with predictability, legal certainty and fast procedures”.
SEV and the Licensing Working Group, presented comprehensive proposals towards reaching the target of further 30% reduction in licensing timeframe by 2020, based on standardized licensing requirements. The main measures for accelerating the investment licensing procedures include:
- One stop shop for licensing procedures.
- All-in-one permit, within a central licensing authority
- Immediate activation of the Electronic Licensing System (Integrated Information System – OPS ADE) which is still in the pilot phase (today Notify Business)
- Removal of categorization based on a nuisance (as an installation criterion) and replacement by environmental provisions (setting up a specialized working group with the participation of businesses community)
- Provisions for integrated deviations in industrial construction (currently requires 4-6 months for a simple decision)
- Immediate expansion of operating notification for all economic activities listed in Α2 subcategory (L 4014/2011)
- Clarifications on the provisions for relocation in case of land use change
- Αbolition of the ban on installing new medium nuisance level activities in Attica, within business parks
- Immediate adoption of secondary legislation on control and oversight (L.4512/2018) in order to ensure competition rules, simplified procedures and effectively measures against counterfeiting
- Enabling certified external assessors (eg. for fire safety, building and environmental licensing checks)
- Revision of the law on licensing of seaside industrial uses
- Abolition of submission of individual studies for environmental licensing (eg. traffic effects)
- Training of public sector personnel and those who will be in charge for the implementation of the new simplified procedures, in order to avoid misinterpretations
- Codification of legislation and formulation of a simplified implementation guide
