Citizens have a strong interest in ensuring unhindered access and use of the beaches, as reflected in the complaints about abuses they have submitted through the MyCoast application. Specifically, according to the data of the General Secretariat of Information Systems and Digital Governance of the Ministry of Digital Governance, 52,000 citizens have “downloaded” the application to their mobile phones, while complaints have reached 8,911.

It is indicative that only in the last week (18-24/6) 2,640 complaints have been submitted, an increase of around 50% from the number of complaints of the previous week, with approximately 2/3 of them within the three days of the Holy Spirit (1,731 complaints), throughout Greece.

Of all the complaints, the majority of them are anonymous (8,096) while the most popular reasons for complaints are:

  • the arbitrary occupation of land (6,065),
  • the obstruction of free access (1.091),
  • the alteration of the morphology of the coast (688).

The regions of Greece which collect the largest number of complaints are the following:

  • Halkidiki (1,404),
  • Preveza (967),
  • Eastern Attica (900),
  • Dodecanese (766),
  • Cyclades (680).

It is emphasized that many of the complaints concern on the same beaches in different regions of the country.

The procedure followed by the competent services is to collect the complaints on a daily basis through the application, to group them by region and by beach, to prioritize them based on the severity and extent of the violation and then to intervene with unannounced spot checks, wherever it needs. Such checks have already been carried out all over Greece, with a typical example being operations in Rhodes, Lake Zirou, Preveza Prefecture, Messolonghi, Halkidiki and throughout the country.

Finally, it is recalled that, based on the law of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, provisions have been made and are being implemented four ways of controlling beaches which include the use of drones, taking satellite images, citizen input through the free MyCoast digital app and mixed levels of inspectors. Controls will continue at an increasing pace in the coming days throughout Greece.