Ioanna Mandrou

By decision of the Plenary Session of the Council of State, the trials that had been opened at the initiative of local bodies, the municipalities of Keratsini and Drapetsona as well as the Piraeus Bar Association for the port expansion projects on behalf of PPA and Cosco were abolished.

The abolition of the two lawsuits was done for formal reasons, as mentioned in the decisions, as a new decision was taken last September to study environmental conditions to replace the then existing one, which was the subject of the judicial crisis.

The decisions were issued under the chairmanship of the president of the Council of Ministers, Evangelia Nikas, and with the recommendation of the Councilor of State, Maria Sotiropoulou.

In their reasoning, among other things, it is stated that the cancellation of the lawsuits was done on the grounds that “a new environmental conditions approval decision was issued on 15.9.2023, which replaced the first contested act, and that, following this, the second contested TEPEM approval has also ceased to be valid».

Also, the Plenary Session of the CoE, regarding the request of the Piraeus Bar Association, ruled that “for the valid exercise of legal aid or means by the Bar Association before the CoE, it is necessary to provide a power of attorney to the undersigned lawyer or to the person present during the discussion in the audience by the president of Bar Association, without the presentation of a decision of the Board of Directors of the Association being sufficient”.

Both decisions were taken by majority vote.