Central Archaeological Council

One day after Greece's Central Archaeological Council (KAS) recommended that part of the disused Elliniko plot, which is slated for a massive redevelopment project worth 8 billion euros, be declared an archaeological site, opposition New Democracy on Wednesday accused the left-led government of putting off investors and undermining the debt-hit country's economic recovery.

Greece's top advisory body on the protection of antiquities, the Central Archaeological Council (KAS), has ruled that more than 30 hectares of Elliniko, the site of a planned real estate investment in southern Athens, is of archaeological interest.

The government is on standby Tuesday as the Central Archaeological Council (KAS) is scheduled to meet for the fourth time in just over a month to decide on whether a section of Elliniko, the site of a planned real estate investment in southern Athens, will be declared of archaeological interest, a move that could scupper the project.

The government is reportedly prepared to take the matter of the stalled Elliniko investment to the Council of State, the country's highest legal body, if the Central Archaeological Council (KAS) decides to raise obstacles to the project by declaring a part of the plot in question to be of archaeological interest.

Despite the "full support" expressed by ruling SYRIZA's political council for the planned real estate investment at the site of the capital's old airport in Elliniko, party cadres appear reluctant to endorse the government's bid to bypass the Central Archaeological Council (KAS), which is set to decide next Tuesday on whether a part of the plot will be declared to be of archaeological interest.

Even if part of Athens's old international airport at Elliniko, which is slated for a massive urban redevelopment project worth 8 billion euros, is declared of archaeological interest the rest of the investment will proceed as planned, Greece's deputy Economy Minister Stergios Pitsiorlas has said.

Seeking to counter accusations that the planned real estate investment at the former site of the capital's airport in Elliniko is being undermined by ideologues within ruling SYRIZA, the leftist party's political council issued a statement Thursday expressing its "full support" for the project.

The political council of leftist SYRIZA on Thursday issued a statement expressing its "full support" for the completion of "all the necessary steps related to the launch of the realization of the investment at Elliniko, with full respect for the law and the foreseen procedures."

A few hours after the country's Central Archaeological Council (KAS) put off a meeting about the site of the capital's former airport at Elliniko, which is slated for a real estate development, New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for the resignation of the Culture Ministry's general secretary Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki.

The country's Central Archaeological Council (KAS) on Wednesday postponed for the third time in a month a scheduled discussion about whether part of a plot at Elliniko, the site of the capital's former airport in southern Athens, should be declared of archaeological interest, a move that could stop a large real estate investment in the area.