The development of the Hellenic Cadastre in the period 2010-2018: a policy reform under financial duress
Evangelia Balla
Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation
Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management University of Twente, Netherlands
Abstract
The onset of the economic crisis in Greece directly highlighted the lack of integrated digital data on both public and private property. Thus, each of the three consecutive bailout programs in 2010, 2012 and 2015 prioritized the completion of the Hellenic Cadastre (HC), to facilitate land taxation, exploitation of public property, economic development and investment. The paper presents the research design and the preliminary theoretical considerations of a PhD research about the cadastral policy reform in Greece during the period of the economic crisis 2010-2018. Empirical foci are the following: (1) the role of foreign technical assistance in the development of the HC, (2) the organizational changes of Greece’s Land Administration Institutions, (3) the role of domestic stakeholders in the development of the HC and (4) the changes in land tenure security. The PhD research seeks to contribute to land administration literature and practice in relation to the broader context of policy reforms in Greece.
Keywords: Greece, public policy reforms, cadastral policy reform, cadastral development, crisis
1 1.Introduction
The development of a cadastral system, as an instrument to formalize land tenure rights,, has been studied extensively in the global literature (Williamson et al. 2010; Zevenbergen et al. 2016). Furthermore, securing and providing land rights to all women and men by 2030 is now in the global agenda of international organizations, national governments and civil society. Eight targets and 12 indicators under five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (1, 2, 5, 11 and 15) recognize the importance of land to sustainable human development (Veit n.d.). “Land Rights for all” (UN-Habitat 2008) is the motto of the global sustainable development agenda, which since the 2000s decade strive to secure land rights “for the 70% of the people worldwide who are aware that land rights related to their piece of land are not documented” (Lemmen 2018:5). With a view to the attainment of land tenure security to the biggest part of our planet, the study of the Greek case can give valuable lessons to the professional and academic community: the development of the Hellenic Cadastre (HC) as a policy reform, involved since its introduction in 1995, both the challenges in cadastral mapping, as well as, the largely technocratic expert solutions attempted to date and the macro-economic and international influences on a state’s cadastral system development.
The performance of administrative reforms in Greece especially in the period 1974-2012 has been extensively studied by scholars who highlight the inability of the Greek governments to implement them and the significant opposition they face (Kalyvas et al. 2012). Other scholars have started to study the performance of policy reforms during the crisis (Katsikas et al. 2018; Ladi 2014; Lampropoulou 2018; Lyrintzis 2011; Papoulias 2019; Spanou 2014, 2016, 2018). Recent research on the evaluation of the reforms of Greek public administration during the crisis (Spanou et al. 2019) highlighted that the economic crisis has been presented as the opportunity for a radical transformation of the Greek public administration. Most of the policy reforms introduced with the memoranda were related to existing problems and inconsistencies in the domestic sociopolitical and administrative system. Nevertheless, scholars argue that the agenda was slanted towards a logic of a “big bang” (vs “less is more”) and Greek governments were called upon to implement a bulk of structural reforms within a short period of time (Spanou et al. 2019).
Yet, a systematic study of the Hellenic Cadastre within the broader context of public policy reforms in Greece is lacking. The current PhD Research seeks to contribute to land administration literature and practice in relation to the broader context of policy reforms in Greece. The contribution to knowledge of this research is the study of cadastral development from a policy reform perspective that does not explain reform episodes retrospectively but focuses on how reforms are enacted over time (Tsoukas, 2012).
2. Background: Setting and understanding the scene
The first two concerted attempts of the newly formed Hellenic State to register public property and develop a Cadastre date back to the 19th century, during the years 1834 and 1836 and later in the same century (Gazis 1992, Labadarios 1932, McGrew 1985, Varvaressos 1940). Registering public property at that time was indispensable because “national estates” i.e. public land, were the only source of the newly formed State for raising fiscal revenues and implementing a land distribution program to citizens liberated from Ottoman rule. Indeed, the national estates were used as collateral for outstanding loans received by foreign powers after 1821 to support the War of Independence. Understandably, the foreign powers exerted a consistent pressure for precise official records about the public domain to ensure loan repayment. However, the lack of surveyors, inadequate budget, legal disputes about the proof of ownership and political conflicts led to the demise of those efforts and the termination of the
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first land registration project a few years later, in 1841 (McGrew, 1985). Nevertheless, following the introduction of the Civil Law in 1835 and the institution of mortgages in 1836, the country developed a person - and paper-based Deed System, the Registrations and Mortgages System (RMS), which provided for the maintenance of the deeds in the so-called “Mortgage Offices”.
Further efforts to develop a Cadastre were repeated in the 20th century, but without any concrete result (Gazis 1992, Technical Chamber of Greece (TCG) 1978). Specifically, the quest for a Cadastre restarted in the late 1970s, after the overthrow of the military regime and the restitution of democracy, as part of institutional modernization of the country. The contiguous efforts, bore finally fruit in 1986, with the Law 1647/1986 which created a legal entity of public law, namely the Hellenic Cadastre and Mapping Organization (HEMCO), to undertake this endeavour. However, it was no sooner than 1995 that this large scale infrastructural project started with the help of a more flexible organizational governmental entity (KTIMATOLOGIO S.A.) and the co-finance from EU grants. At that time, the completion of Cadastre was set to take place in 2009. However, at the end of 2009, the cadastral survey had been completed in 6% of the country’s area or 17% of the property rights, whereas its completion date was reset to the year 2016.
After the onset of the sovereign debt crisis in Greece, the three consecutive financial assistance programs (2010, 2012, 2015) prioritized the complete registration of public and private property by means of the development of the Hellenic Cadastre (HC). The premise was that the lack of legal certainty about property rights obstructs proper taxation and inhibits the exploitation of public property, economic development and investment. Thus, the completion of the Cadastre, along with the delineation of forests and coastal zones for the entire Greek territory, were included in the long-term structural reforms to improve the business environment and increase the country’s competitiveness.
In the evolution of the Hellenic Cadastre during the crisis years, three time periods can be distinguished. Each period is defined by a crucial political event: first, the elections, and, second, a bailout agreement, which in turn, affects (at least partially) the content, intensity, and political direction of the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System (HCS) (Figure 1).
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By the end of 2018, the completion rate of land registration over the entire country was not substantially different compared to the onset of the crisis. The cadastral survey had been completed in 7.80% of the country’s area or 28.70% of the property rights. However, currently, a bulk of cadastral survey projects are in progress in the rest of the country (84.60% of the territory or 62.20% of rights), while in 7.60% of the country's surface area (9.10% of real rights) cadastral survey has not yet begun (Figure 2). As far as the Forest Maps are concerned, the progress in absolute numbers is substantial, considering that in 2009 almost none Forest Map had been ratified, whereas in June 2018 the percentage was 32.20%. Progress is evident with regard to the coastline as well. By 2014, only 8% of the country’s coastline was demarcated, while the entire coastline delineation is expected to be completed throughout the country by the end of 2019.
Figure 2: Progress of the cadastral survey in Greece as of November 2018 (data source: HELLENIC CADASTRE)
Overall, the eight-year period of the crisis is replete with institutional and organizational changes and initiatives in the midst of budgetary constraints and political instability affecting the development of the HC. Numerous ambitious targets were set, coupled with strict deadlines to deliver outputs, the nature of which itself was changing depending on signed MoUs, election outcomes, and expectations or advice from foreign experts. Therefore, even though behind schedule, compared to the completion date of 2016 that was set back in 2009, efforts intensified to accelerate the completion of this large scale infrastructural project in the years of the economic crisis. Moreover, the ultimate milestone for the completion of the Cadastre was designated in 2012 for the year 2020. This milestone has been revised only recently, in June 2018. The new milestone for the completion of the Cadastre has been extended to mid-2021. (Spanou et.al, 2019). The development of the Hellenic Cadastre initiated and evolved in the last 24 years, is now in its most critical juncture with a view to the cadastral survey, which is currently in progress throughout the entire country until June 2021 and still requires huge financial, human and administrative resources.
It is, therefore, time to step back and reflect on the HC’s recent development over time and understand how the policy reform for the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System
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implemented during the economic crisis. By analyzing and understanding the role of local stakeholders, but also of the influence of foreign technical assistance on the development of the HC, the nature of tensions between professions involved in the HC, or the specific contestations over public and private property that impact cadastral development in Greece, we may reflect and re-assess from a more abstract and larger perspective. By doing so, we may identify fundamental problems, observe and evaluate the processes of learning, lessons learnt, and instances of innovation that may have been taking place all along. To move forward constructively, we need to identify both: the fundamental tensions and patterns that create problems, but also the lessons learnt and the changes that provide anchors for future development.
3. Conceptual and Methodological approach – Research Questions
The PhD research is a qualitative study on the development of the HC from a policy reform perspective. It’s based on document analysis, in-depth interviews with key informants, insights from participant observation and content analysis informed by concepts from land administration, public policy and organizational theory. Furthermore, I developed a conceptual scheme for process analysis, by use of a logic model for the cadastral development process which is placed in the larger context of the policy reform concept (Figure 3). The PhD Research has a main research question and four sub-questions that divide the main question into smaller empirical units.
Main Research Question
How has the policy reform for the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System, aiming to provide land tenure security, been implemented and to what effect, during the period of the economic crisis 2010-2018?
Sub Research Questions
Which were the main directions of the foreign technical assistance and how did they influence (or not) the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System during the period of the economic crisis 2010-2018?
How did the Land Administration Institutions change and to what effect, during the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System in the period of the economic crisis 2010-2018?
How did the domestic stakeholders influence the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System during the period of the economic crisis 2010-2018?
How has the land tenure security been affected during the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System in the period of the economic crisis 2010-2018?
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4. Operationalization of the main research question
The transformation of the Land Registration System to the new Hellenic Cadastre System in the period under study, took place in the context of the country’s structural adjustment, as a result of the policy conditionality introduced with the bailout agreements and the associated economic adjustment programmes. Therefore, cadastral development (or stagnation) during the period 2010-2018 cannot be understood without proper attention to the provisions of the Economic Adjustment Programmes and the Memoranda of Understanding with regard to the HC. Thus, it becomes inevitable to study how the foreign technical assistance, as a result of the country’s “external anchoring/external governance” (Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier 2004), has impacted the cadastre policy reform during the crisis. To study the first sub-research question, I employ the concepts of policy conditionality (Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier 2004; Spanou 2016, 2018), of technical assistance ( Rietbergen-McCracken, 1996) and of premature load bearing (Andrews et al. 2017). I will carry out document analysis (three MoUs, intermediate evaluation reports, technical reports of foreign TA etc.) and I will interview foreign cadastral experts, EC officials, politicians and government officials who participated in the three distinct phases of the foreign technical assistance to the HC.
Furthermore, the HC System is developed as a large public sector, infrastructural programme with a partial, though low, co-financing from European Structural Funds. Large public sector, infrastructural projects and programmes are political arenas for conflict, bargaining and trade-offs among local and global elites, who use power and skill to influence a government’s agenda. Hence, along with the influence of the foreign actors, it is necessary to study the interactions of domestic stakeholders and their influence on cadastral development. To study the influence of the domestic stakeholders in the development of the HC during the respective period, I employ some techniques from stakeholder analysis, as well as, some methods suggested to identify influence of interest groups on decision making like preference attainment approach, attributed influence method and process tracing method (Dür and De Bièvre 2007; Dür 2008; March 1955).
Important stakeholders in the cadastral policy reform are the Land Administration Institutions. Their transformation and organizational change towards a single agency, which will operate the new system, is part of the cadastral policy reform and has been outlined since the onset of the reform in 1995. In the period under study, the land governance landscape, represented by the country’s Land Administration Institutions, has gone through several organizational changes and is currently under a drastic transformation. The two most prominent are the merging of the cadastre and mapping responsibilities (2013) and the merging of the cadastre and registry responsibilities (2018). A closer study of these organizational changes is of great interest, since these function both as a focus of change (a prerequisite for the completion of the cadastral reform) and as a medium for effecting broader change (the primary stakeholders or “carriers” to carry out the cadastral process), resulting in a “recursivity” paradox (Tsoukas and Papoulias 2005). A process analysis approach (Langley et al. 2013; Langley 1999) will be used to identify the main events and the organizational changes triggered by these events between 2010 and 2018. I intend further to classify the changes with the “orders of change” (Cassey 2000; Tsoukas and Papoulias 2005; Watzlawick et al, 1974). A document analysis of the legislative framework which institutionalized these organizational changes, along with in-depth key informant interviews will be employed as well, to allow deeper insight and understanding.
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Lastly, the cadastral policy reform does not only generate tensions between the proponents of the old and the drivers of the new system. It changes the people-State-land relationship and generates tensions among people, as well as, between people and the State. In particular, the cadastral policy reform contests an existing “land tenure status quo”, with the outcomes and benefits it intends (and promises) to produce. Empirical data show that cadastral development in the respective period has surfaced diachronic problems of informal tenure, namely illegal land use changes (forest to agricultural or residential land) which, according to domestic law, means unauthorized occupation of public land. Furthermore, the compilation of forest maps or the finalization of the first cadastral registrations in the Operative Cadastre continues to reveal a variety of issues, which contest citizens’ land tenure. In view of the above, the last sub research question aims to unravel how the concept of land tenure security has been affected during the cadastral development in the years 2010-2018. As a theoretical lens, I employ the Van Gelder’s tripartite model of land tenure security (legal, de facto, perceived) in order to classify the aspect of land tenure security, which is contested (Van Gelder, 2010).
Overall, the ultimate goal of this study is to research systematically the process and the outcomes of the cadastral development in Greece in the period 2010-2018. By studying the above research questions, I aspire to contribute to the understanding of how such a policy reform has been implemented, to identify reasons that have helped or hindered its effectiveness, to shed light into potential change drivers which may dissolve tensions, with the aim of enabling further the cadastral development towards the new cadastral system and increase the probability of delivering the promised collective goods.
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