The said MD suspended the submission of new applications for Grid Connection Quotation or for Production Licenses, as well as the assessment of similar already pending applications, due to the existence of already too many contracted PV stations, which fully cover the national targets set for 2020. PV stations on house roofs and those submitted under the fast track procedure were exempted from the said Ministerial Decision.
According to the action for annulment, the contested act shall be annulled as being invalid, among others, due to lack of a lawful ground or, alternatively, due to lack or encroachment of legal authorization, as provided for in article 43 para. 2 of the Greek Constitution. Moreover, the contested ministerial decision infringes the law, since it is accompanied by a poor reasoning being also in breach of several statutory juridical principles, such as the principle of proportionality as well as the principle of protection of legitimate expectations on the part of the investors.
Finally, it is obvious that any assessment related to the achievement of national targets for PV penetration is inept, if it takes into consideration solely the contracted projects, ignoring the actually installed PV capacity or the realistic expectations regarding the realization of further projects especially due to the severe lack of liquidity caused by the extreme financial crisis.
The suspension provided in the ministerial decision affects any investors who have suffered extremely negative consequences from the breach of the legally imposed obligation of the System Operator to grant Grid Connection Quotation within four months (Art. 8 para.4 of L. 3468/06, as amended by Art. 3 of L. 3851/2010), without having received such an offer from the Operator, despite the lapse of, in the majority of the cases, an extremely longer than the one imposed by aforementioned legislative provisions period of time.
Hence, the applicants, some of them being foreign investors who proceeded to a number of preparatory costs for the implementation of their investing initiative in Greece, have faced the Operators illegal delays and now are caught under the provisions of the contested Actions suspension, which ultimately condemns their investment effort.
