Microsoft vs Greek red tape
It has taken the tech giant four years to secure the permit necessary to build its data center
It took Microsoft no less than four years to get the first construction permit for the main building of its first data center in Greece, which will be built at Spata, eastern Attica.
The notorious Greek bureaucracy, shortage of people, lack of accountability of service agents, as well as changes in the management of the local subsidiary of Microsoft, the pandemic and the traditional freeze which precedes any Greek election (this time the European elections) are to blame for this long delay, according to market sources.
If one adds the competition between potential suppliers and subcontractors and the time required by archaeologists to clear an area, as well as the mobilization by from local government to take care of critical infrastructure, one realizes the magnitude of the challenge for every investor, Greek or foreign.
Therefore on Wednesday, the day that French technology company DATA4 announced an investment of 300 million euros in Greece for the development of a new data center campus in Paiania, the joint ministerial decision that paves the way was finally published in the Government Gazette for the issuance of building permits for Microsoft’s €976 million investment.
The relevant building permits are expected to be issued in the near future and the construction of the first of three Microsoft data centers will begin at Spata. The other two, as the company explained to the government, will be done in the second year.
The building permit will coincide with the four-year anniversary of the announcement of the investment on October 4, 2020. It took the mobilization of the government at the highest level so that the Development Ministry convened successive meetings of the general secretaries of co-competent ministries and with the Microsoft staff in order to get the investment started in the last quarter. Therefore, in the coming weeks, GEK Terna, the contractor of the project, is expected to start the construction of the main building and then the supporting facilities at Spata.
