The new digital application “MyCoast” was presented today, April 29, by the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou and the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, with the participation of the Secretary General of Information Systems and Digital Governance, Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos and the Secretary General of Public Property, Naya Kollia.

Through “MyCoast”, citizens can check whether the legality of the concession conditions is respected on the beaches they are on and submit a relevant complaint in cases of exceeding the concessions or arbitrary occupation. In the next phase, with the integration of an Artificial Intelligence tool, the legality will be automatically checked by the information systems.

“MyCoast” contributes to ensuring the free access of all citizens to the coasts, to the strengthening of transparency in the granting of beaches, as well as to the organized utilization of public property. At the same time, it also has a positive impact on environmental protection.

The “MyCoast” application is available for free for mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets through the App Store, soon also through the Play Store, and is particularly simple and user-friendly.

More specifically, citizens:

* They open the application and activate their mobile’s GPS.

* They locate their area of ​​interest on the map and the polygon of the concession appears on the screen of their device.

* By selecting the polygon, its details are displayed, i.e. the location, the start and end of the concession, use, area etc.

* In case they find arbitrary occupation of an area or obstruction of free access, they can submit the aforementioned complaints through the application.

* Identify the reason for the complaint and enter a brief description of the problem.

Complaints can be submitted both anonymously and by name. In the case of a named complaint, citizens are required to log into the application with personal TaxisNet codes, to complete the process.

It is pointed out that a complaint can only be submitted via a mobile device, which is located near the point of said concession. In addition, only one complaint, per complaint type, can be submitted on the same day from the same device and for the same concession.

After successfully submitting the named complaint, the application displays its unique number and date of submission. Citizens are only able to browse the history of their named complaints and their details, such as the status of the complaint.

The submitted complaints appear in the “Register of Beach and Beach Concessions” subsystem of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, so that they can be examined by the competent Real Estate Services.

In the event that it is not possible to complete the complaint through “MyCoast”, citizens can make it by any suitable means before any public authority, which is obliged to forward it on the same day to the competent Real Estate Service of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance.

The implementation of the application was carried out by the General Secretariat of Information Systems and Digital Governance with the cooperation of the General Secretariat of Public Property.

It is recalled that this specific application is part of the overall strategy of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance which concerns:

* The establishment of a transparent electronic procedure for the auction of beaches

* The establishment of “deceitful beaches”

* The establishment of stricter rules in the management of beaches to ensure free access for citizens

* The introduction of stricter obligations for those who lease beaches,

* The use of new technologies (drones, satellites) for more effective controls by the State

* The imposition of stricter penalties for those who arbitrarily violate the rules of beach management.

As the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, pointed out, “with summer just around the corner and officially, we come as the Ministry of Digital Governance to contribute with a new technological tool, the “MyCoast” application, to ensuring the right of all citizens to free access to coasts, reinforcing the wider effort of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, to bring order to the beaches. Citizens can now, when they find violations on the beach they are on, report them easily and immediately. At the Ministry of Digital Governance we utilize all modern technological tools and create digital solutions for the benefit of citizens. Protecting the environment and respecting public goods is the business of all of us.”

For his part, the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, stated that “the MyCoast application will be the tool for citizens to become allies of the State in our effort to bring order to the operating regime of businesses on the coasts and beaches. Anyone will be able to detect any illegalities and report them in the application, thus strengthening the protection of legality on the granted beaches. With the immediate implementation of the law 5092/2024 that we enacted, we are putting order to public property, with a strict framework of rules, penalties and obligations for concessionaires, a strengthened control system, transparency and determination for the implementation of the law. And we do it by combining the protection of the environment with the rational development and the defense of the right of all citizens to free access to the beaches”.

As Mr. Hatzidakis pointed out, the MyCoast application is one of the measures that have been taken for this particular problem, and he underlined that all tenders for the exploitation of the beaches will be held electronically and centrally (the platform is ready to be conducted) so that various phenomena of irregular concessions or freebies are avoided, while modern technological means will be used for the controls.

Among other things, he said that whoever undertakes to install umbrellas and sunbeds on a beach is obliged to have a lifeguard as well as leave 50% of the beach to the citizens, who will be able to have their own things.

It is noted that last year under the pressure of the “towel movement” 4,500 checks were carried out and 1,750 violations were found.