To what extent is property protected in Greece?

The Greek Constitution provides that property is under the protection of the State; however, any rights deriving there from may not be exercised contrary to the public interest.

Property is deemed any right (in rem, in personam, intangible) that may be financially evaluated; and the extent of property expropriation may vary from total deprivation, deprivation only of the right of use, or simply the restriction of the way of use of property etc.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution the right to property can be restricted in favor of the public interest when applying compulsory expropriation procedures. The Constitution sets three conditions for the permitted alienation of the owner from its real property right:

• the established public benefit, which in addition, justified as well, may not be served by any other means less onerous to the owner;
• the legislative provision that must precede the expropriation and set out in detail the manner and the procedure of the expropriation, in order to entitle the Administrative Authorities to proceed to expropriations for a specific cause (by virtue of formal or regulatory law); and
• the full compensation of the owner, which is determined by a Court decision (the provisional compensation by a decision of the Court of First Instance and the final compensation by decision of the Court of Appeals).
  

What is a banking enterprise?

The credit institutions and the financial institutions are the two categories of banking enterprises eligible to be established and to operate in Greece. The Bank of Greece is the competent national authority that supervises and monitors the establishment and the operation of both the credit and financial institutions pursuant to the applicable Greek and European Union legislation.

What is a Credit Institution?

A Credit institution is an enterprise entitled to receive deposits or other repayable funds from the public and to grant loans or other kind of credit on its own account. Natural or legal entities which are not credit institutions are prohibited by Law to carry out the business of receiving deposits or other repayable funds from the public, while carrying out the business of granting loans or other kinds of credit to the public is subject to special authorization by the Bank of Greece.