Infrastructure
Go-ahead Greece
The Greek government has this week won an appeal against the forestry ministry to go ahead with Athens’ Hellinikon project. The venture – which will transform the abandoned airport on the capital’s south shore into one of Europe’s biggest coastal resorts, incorporating 810 hectacres of municipal parkland – is viewed by some investors as a step forward for an economy that has long epitomised the worst of the eurozone’s woes. The €8bn development has long been a political hot potato; prime minister Alexis Tsipras was a fierce opponent of the plan but has done an about-face and now sees the project as integral to Greece’s rebound efforts. Meanwhile, both the forestry and antiquity departments are still grumbling about its potential environmental impact. Nevertheless now that Hellinikon is going ahead it doesn’t seem so far-fetched when investors make cautious noises about a resurgent Greece.