New obstacle to Elliniko project

Greece's privatization agency, TAIPED, is scrambling to keep a major privatization project afloat following a decision by the Piraeus forestry authority to declare as woodland a section of the old Athens airport plot at Elliniko, which was conceded to a consortium of Greek, Chinese and Arab investors last year.

The hiccup is the latest in a series of obstacles to the development of the plot, whose implementation has already been delayed for years.

Last week Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou sent a letter to her ministry's Central Council for Modern Monuments, asking it to declare three structures on the Elliniko site as listed buildings and therefore protected.

The latest upset came late Thursday, when the Piraeus forestry authority deemed that a 3.7-hectare portion of the Elliniko plot is woodland and as such cannot be built on. The area in question is a small...