Naxos: unanimous 'no' to renewables, Council of State appeal

The Municipal Council of Naxos and Small Cyclades unanimously decided on Monday 24 August 2026 to legally challenge the new Joint Ministerial Decision on the spatial planning framework for Renewable Energy Sources. The council authorised Mayor Dimitris Lianos to take the necessary steps before the Council of State. The Joint Ministerial Decision was published on 19 August 2026, and the deadline for filing an annulment application expires on 14 November, which sets a tight timetable for the legal preparation.

The appeal will move on three fronts: that no renewable energy installations of this type be set up on Naxos, that offshore wind farms not be sited, and that licences already in force be withdrawn. The municipality’s legal adviser, Vasilis Karabinis, told the session that a similar case from 2020 was heard around three years ago, with no ruling issued to date. This point relates directly to how long it may take to reach a final ruling, regardless of the outcome, and explains why the discussion linked the legal route with parallel mobilisation rather than simply waiting.

For the islands, the critical issue is the area threshold that determines which are considered suitable for large installations. The leader of the main minority, Leonardos Chatzianddreou, called for a united front of island municipalities and a suitability threshold for islands over 500 square kilometres, instead of the 300 provided for in the Joint Ministerial Decision, citing a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 16 July. Municipal councillor Manolis Vavoulas proposed holding a local referendum, a proposal to which the President of the Municipal Council, Stelios Mavrogiannopoulos, replied that the matter falls under central government’s authority and cannot be decided by a local vote. The issue has occupied Naxos for months, as recorded also in the unanimous “no” to new wind turbines voted earlier this year.

Naxos is not acting alone. The Municipality of Andros has already assigned handling of the case to a law firm, while coordination of island municipalities is also being considered through the Regional Union of Municipalities of the South Aegean, so that appeals are not filed piecemeal. Andros and Naxos had appeared together on the map of wind farms in the new spatial plan, while earlier a commitment for Andros with Naxos as the only island had been discussed in the planning. The Municipal Council also decided to hold an information day in late September or early October, to put the facts before residents ahead of any possible mobilisation. The cross-party committee meets again next week, and the final content of the appeal will emerge from that meeting. As of the time of writing, no public response from the relevant ministries to the island municipalities’ decisions had been announced.