Press release · Municipality of Apokoronas

Apokoronas challenges high-voltage power line route through the Madara at Greece's top court

January 15, 2026 Original source ↗

Summary

The municipality of Apokoronas is pursuing a case before the Council of State (Greece's supreme administrative court) against the planned high-voltage power line that would pass through the Madara mountain area. The grid operator ADMIE has filed a formal intervention in the proceedings, defending the project. The municipality argues that the planning process ignored environmental, public health, and landscape impacts, and is backed by a scientific study commissioned from the National Technical University of Athens, whose final phase is due to be completed shortly.

Apokoronas vs ADMIE: High-voltage power line dispute heads to Greece's top court

A legal battle over a planned high-voltage power line through the Madara mountain area is now before Greece's Council of State — the country's highest administrative court. The outcome will determine whether the route chosen by grid operator ADMIE goes ahead as planned, or whether a fresh assessment of alternatives is required.

What the dispute is about

ADMIE, the state-owned electricity transmission operator, has planned a high-voltage line that would pass through the Apokoronas area and the broader Madara zone. The municipality objects to the chosen route and has filed a formal challenge with the Council of State, arguing that the planning process failed to properly examine the consequences for the local environment, public health, landscape, social cohesion, and long-term sustainable development.

According to the municipality, the obligation to meaningfully evaluate alternative routes — both a constitutional requirement under Article 24 of the Greek constitution and a European legal obligation — has not been met.

ADMIE fights back

In response, ADMIE has filed a formal intervention in the court proceedings, defending its plans. The municipality reads this as confirmation that the operator is pressing ahead with a design that, in its view, treats the area as a technical corridor rather than a living landscape with historical, ecological, and social dimensions.

Scientific backing from the National Technical University

To support its case, the municipality enlisted the National Technical University of Athens (known in Greek as the Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο). The first phase of a scientific study has already been submitted to the court. The municipality says the final phase — which will present data on the actual impacts of the proposed line and assess alternative routing options — is due to be completed very soon.

What is at stake for the area

The municipality identifies several areas of concern it says have been overlooked:

Environment and landscape: the line would pass through terrain with distinctive geological and natural features
Public health: potential effects on residents living near a high-voltage line
Social cohesion: broader community impacts of large-scale infrastructure
Sustainable development: long-term, potentially irreversible changes to the area

The municipality's position is that the precautionary principle demands a higher level of scrutiny for major infrastructure projects in areas like Apokoronas and the Madara, which it describes as having particular geomorphological, ecological, and social characteristics.

What happens next

The case is now in the hands of the Council of State. No date for a ruling has been announced. If the court sides with the municipality, ADMIE could be required to carry out a more thorough review and consider alternative routes. If it sides with ADMIE, the current plan would be cleared to proceed.

Note: This report is based on a press release issued by the municipality of Apokoronas. The account reflects the municipality's position; ADMIE has not made a public statement in response.

Official source

Source translation

Machine-translated from the official source document.

Press Release – "No decisions made behind the back of society – Institutionally, lawfully and to the end, the Municipality of Apokoronas stands before the Council of State", declares the Mayor of Apokoronas, Charalampos Koukianakis, regarding the objections and intervention filed by ADMIE against the appeal of the Municipality of Apokoronas before the Council of State.

January 15, 2026, 9:18 AM

ADMIE is defending its interests and this does not surprise or catch us off guard. The submission of the intervention by ADMIE confirms that the Organisation persists in a design that treats the space as a technical substrate and not as a living social, environmental and historical system, as the Constitution and the established jurisprudence of the Council of State require.

We, however, defend our land, our people and their future.

What causes reasonable concern is that, once again, the serious and multi-layered impacts of the passage of the high-voltage line on the environment, public health, the landscape, social cohesion and the sustainable development of the area are being systematically ignored.

Continuing, the Mayor of Apokoronas, Mr Koukianakis, stated that the Municipality of Apokoronas did not act either carelessly or in a populist manner. It followed an institutional, lawful and fully documented path — with public and enduring interventions, accessible to every citizen — with the assignment of the case to distinguished and specialised legal professionals, and with the scientific contribution of the National Technical University of Athens, a leading academic institution of the country.

The first phase of the scientific study has already been submitted, while the immediately forthcoming period will see the completion of the final phase, which will substantiate with irrefutable scientific data the actual impacts and the alternative routing solutions.

We are not against energy. We are against choices that are designed behind the backs of local communities and without respect for people and the landscape. Those who treat Apokoronas as a simple line on a map are making a grave mistake.

Apokoronas is a living place, with history, memory and struggles.

Madara is not a transit corridor.

We have absolute confidence in scientific knowledge, in the serious legal documentation of our associates, and in the independent judgment of Justice.

The Municipality of Apokoronas maintains that the principle of sustainable development (Article 24 of the Constitution) cannot be exhausted in technical expediencies, but must take into account the long-term and irreversible impacts on the natural and man-made environment. The principle of prevention and precaution imposes an enhanced level of documentation, particularly when it comes to large-scale projects in areas with particular geomorphological, environmental and social characteristics, such as Apokoronas and the broader zone of Madara.

The substantive examination of alternative solutions does not constitute a formal procedure, but a constitutional and European obligation, which has in no way been fulfilled.

In closing, the Mayor of Apokoronas, Charalampos Koukianakis, noted that the Council of State, on the basis of its constitutional mission and its jurisprudence, will weigh not only what is technically feasible, but what is institutionally correct and socially just.

Because in a state governed by the rule of law, the lawful cannot be severed from the ethical.