On 15 October we reported that the Municipality had allocated 235,600 euros for the programme contract ‘Artemida Tourist Port Planning’, without the document specifying with whom, the timetable or the current stage of the project. On Thursday 29 October, the Municipality published the first amendment to the contract on the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal. Together with the original contract, which has been published since July 2025, it answers most of the questions. However, it also shows that the latest deadline published expired on 1 July 2026.
Who carries out the studies and what do they involve?
The contract was signed on 1 April 2025 between the Municipality and ‘Attica Development SA–AOTA’, the local authority development organisation based at Spata Town Hall, which also carries out other programme contracts providing technical and administrative support on behalf of the Municipality. The Municipality turned to this organisation because the Building Services Department confirmed in June 2024 that it was unable to carry out the study, due to a heavy workload, understaffing and a lack of specialist staff.
The cost is 254,200 euros including VAT, funded from the municipality’s own resources. It includes topographical and bathymetric surveys, a study of building regulations and land use in the land area, an environmental impact assessment, a study of port facilities, studies on the access road network and traffic impacts, and a coastal engineering study to examine whether the port will cause sedimentation or erosion on neighbouring beaches. The final deliverable is the site selection dossier for the issuance of a joint ministerial decision. The objective, as set out in the contract, is a marina of ‘supra-local significance’. Once the studies have been received, the permits granted and funding secured, the Municipality will take over the construction. The contract does not specify at which point along the coast the marina is being considered.
The timetable
The original contract was for a period of ten months: the studies were to be completed within seven months, final acceptance within eight months, and the dossier for the Joint Ministerial Decision within ten months, that is, by early February 2026. In September 2025, the Development Agency requested an extension. The Municipal Committee approved it by Decision 605/2025, and the amendment was signed on 27 October 2025: a further five months, with the studies to be completed by 1 June 2026 and the dossier for the Joint Ministerial Decision by 1 July 2026, with no change to the cost.
The amendment was published on the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal one year and two days after it was signed, and almost four months after the deadline it specified had expired. The original contract had also been published late, on 10 July 2025, three months after it was signed. No further extension has been published. The contract allows the Joint Monitoring Committee to amend the timetable ‘for compelling reasons only’, by means of a reasoned decision, which, however, is not necessarily published on the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal.
What has been paid
The Development Agency is paid per deliverable, once the Monitoring Committee has drawn up its minutes: €15,000 for coordination, €127,200 (80 per cent of the fee) for the studies, €5,000 for technical support, €31,800 upon final acceptance of the studies by the Municipal Committee and €26,000 for the Joint Ministerial Decision dossier, all plus VAT. On the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal, we found only one payment relating to the port: 18,600 euros on 14 July 2025, which is the amount of the first deliverable including VAT. The €235,600 committed on 15 October is exactly €254,200 minus that €18,600, i.e. the entire balance of the contract. Put simply, one and a half years after the contract was signed, the design work has not been paid for.
It is not clear from the documents whether the studies have been submitted and are awaiting approval, or whether they have not yet been completed, and we have not found any of them to have been made public. A harbour on the Artemida coast would affect beaches, traffic and the character of the entire coastal front, and the studies are the first point at which residents will see exactly what is being planned. There are three questions for the local council: what stage the studies are at, whether a further extension has been granted after 1 July, and when they will be made public.
Source: Municipality of Spata–Artemida, 1st amendment to programme agreement 17971/01-04-2025 (ADA 6NΔΤΩ1Χ-ΑΛΕ), Diavgeia 29 October 2026; programme agreement (ADA 9ITHEO1X-BHO), Diavgeia 10 July 2025; ADE 605/2025 (ADA ΨΔΟΑΩ1Χ-ΨΞΡ); payment order ADA ΨΦΨ1Ω1Χ-2ΧΜ, Diavgeia 14/07/2025; commitment ADA 9YM4Ω1X-ΘΘΑ, Diavgeia 15/10/2026.
