ATHENS – After legalizing unlawful buildings that in some cases had been blamed for adding to fire and flood deaths – the owners had to pay a fine – Greece will deregulate state inspection of new  construction.

Building permits will be issued without any inspections by a public authority, according to an Environment Ministry draft law, said Kathimerini, indicating that means no one will check if a building is safe.

The law will allow an engineer to automatically issue permits without anyone else reviewing whether the foundations or infrastructure is a danger and the paper said the New Democracy government will likely abolish all construction planning services.

That would end requirements for licensing or inspections and let engineers simply submit a blueprint topographic diagram with no report whether it would even be looked at or just filed away.

The same draft law extends environmental business licenses even if they have expired, while some new commercial uses are added to the area of Elaionas in Athens to allow even denser areas in a city with little green space, the govetnment apparently intent on filling it in with unchecked construction.

The draft was submitted to Parliament  and mainly concerns the licensing of renewable energy sources, the deregulation tacked on to a measure with nothing in common, a tactic used by governments to hide measures from the public.