More than 200 engineering firms—members of SATE across all categories of the MEEP—from all over Greece attended the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Panhellenic Association of Engineering Firms (SATE).
The large turnout at a non-electoral General Assembly reflects the construction sector’s anxiety about the future of the industry, given the completion of projects under the Recovery and Resilience Fund and the ever-rising prices of building materials, construction equipment rental costs, and fuel prices—a trend expected to intensify further as military operations in the region of Iran and the broader Middle East show no signs of de-escalation. This is already reflected in the country’s inflation rate, which stood at +4.6% in April 2026 according to Eurostat’s preliminary estimates, up from 3.4% in March.
The sector’s growing concern is also evident in the increased average discount rate in 2025 project tenders, 30% compared to an average discount rate of 22% in 2024 and 2023.
SATE President Zacharias Athousakis noted that “over time, SATE’s institutional demands have aimed to ensure transparency in the public works sector” and emphasized “especially in this area, SATE continues to work closely with other Contractors’ Associations as a founding member of ESVYK and as a member of the Coordinating Body of the Contractors’ Associations PEDMEDE, PESEDE, and SATE.”
During the report on the Association’s activities, which was unanimously presented by the SATE Board of Directors to the General Assembly, the Association’s President, after highlighting the universal contribution of all Board members to SATE’s work, with the valuable support of the Association’s partners, outlined the challenges faced by the Association’s Administration in 2025, noting the following as the most critical:
A) Revision of Public Works Contract Prices - ESTEP-TIM-TEM:
SATE pressed for the establishment of a solution; memoranda were sent to the Ministries of Infrastructure and Finance; targeted meetings were held with the Secretary General of Infrastructure, Mr. D. Anagnostopoulos, and with the Secretary General Public Investment Program & Economic Planning, Ms. Aikaterini Oikonomou; there was close cooperation with other Contractors’ Associations toward the same goal, and the result was the partial resolution of the acute problem with Article 113 of Law 5290/2026, according to which the adjustment factors issued for 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 became final and apply to all contracts until a new adjustment system is established.
“Obviously,” added Mr. Athousakis , “as SATE, we are aiming for the next step of activating the ‘Company for Specifications and Pricing of Technical Works and Studies,’ in accordance with the Joint Ministerial Decision issued in 2022.”
B) Presidential Decree on Registers (PD 71/2019)
SATE has highlighted, through interventions and informational events, the problematic aspects of the MITE Information System that are delaying the re-evaluation of the country’s construction companies, which has been requested for many years.
“We are still awaiting a response from the Ministry’s Services regarding the problems we have identified, such as the failure to issue a circular implementing the provisions of Presidential Decree 71/2019 and the failure to issue guidelines for implementing the provisions of Article 50 of Presidential Decree 71/2019.”
C) Irregularities in the tendering of projects – Transparency
SATE frequently identifies arbitrary provisions and special conditions in project notices, a phenomenon that has reached unprecedented proportions, while the response of contracting authorities to SATE’s complaints is disappointing. Furthermore, contracting authorities very often alter the nature of the public contracts being tendered by changing them from public works contracts to supply or service contracts, thereby reducing competition by including terms that do not require prior approval by the Technical Council of Construction.
The President of SATE emphasized that “The Association has sought and will continue to seek: the issuance of a regulatory text with guidelines for contracting authorities on the proper application of Article 86 of Law 4412/2016 and the adoption of appropriate evaluation criteria; the proper classification of tendered contracts as ‘Works’ rather than as ‘Supplies’ or ‘Services’; the establishment of a reasonable time limit (e.g., 6 months) for the option to invite a limited number of companies in cases of natural disasters, and the establishment of a reasonable limit on the ability of the respective Contracting Authority to include ISO certificates in the tender notices.”
D) Flow of Public Works Tendering - Distribution
“There is serious concern regarding the flow of public works tenders in the country and the observed trend toward consolidating projects and tendering them with large budgets, with the simultaneous increased penetration of PPP projects, which now absorb a significant portion of the Public Investment Program through availability payments,” noted Mr. Athousakis, adding:
“This is an issue that has been a major focus of the SAT Board of Directors’ meetings, and a sustainable solution must be found for everyone. The Association proposed making it easier for smaller companies to take advantage of the Standard Proposals provision by significantly lowering the required budget amount for the Standard Proposal from €200 million to the EU threshold, which currently stands at €5.225 million.
If this option is adopted by the Ministry, as SATTE once again proposed in a recent letter, a number of critical, particularly interesting, low-budget proposals could be submitted, creating additional opportunities for professional activity, including for small and medium-sized enterprises.
E) Normalization of the flow of payments for public works
The members of the SAT Management noted that in 2025, fewer problems were observed regarding payment timelines for completed work, as a result of improved management of funding program budgets achieved by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the relevant General Secretariat.
The Association’s Secretary General, Mr. V. Theodoropoulos, presented a detailed report on the activities of the SATE Board of Directors for the year 2025, which was positively commented on by Vice Presidents Mr. Chr. Konstantinidis and G. Vagdatlis, as well as Board member Ms. L. Papageorgiou, while Board member Mr. Emm. Vrailas commented negatively.
After hearing the statements of the Board members and the representatives of Member Companies who took the floor, the representatives of the Association’s Members approved, by a majority, the activities of the SATE Administration for the year 2025 (196 companies with 1,249 votes voted in favor; 7 companies with 224 votes voted against).
Regarding future actions, the SATE Board of Directors proposed to the General Assembly of Members that it be authorized to undertake a series of actions, for which it has already established five standing committees (with indicative topics including National Strategic Planning for Infrastructure and Construction, Society for Specifications and Pricing of Technical Works, Presidential Decree 71/2019, FIEC, FIDIC, BIM) and invited the Association’s members to participate in these committees.
During the discussion regarding the actions that the SATE Board of Directors must incorporate into its planning, the General Assembly unanimously approved:
- The reaffirmation that SATE’s primary objective is to pursue the rapid activation, in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 of Ministerial Decision Δ11/334219/31.10.2022 (Government Gazette B 5565/31.10.2022), of the operation of the Unified System of Technical Specifications and Pricing for Technical Works and Studies, which includes: i) the Company for Technical Works and Studies Specifications and Pricing, ii) the Electronic System for Determining the Cost of Production Factors for Technical Works, as well as iii) the Price Observatory.
- The continuation of efforts to ensure that the practice of construction entrepreneurship takes place under conditions of transparency and equality, with the aim of achieving balanced and sustainable development of the sector’s business units, within an environment where new and healthy businesses can grow in line with their potential.
- The focus on the productive and business restructuring of the sector, so that its sustainability and its successful or unsuccessful development do not depend—to an excessive degree—on the course of the Greek economy and its fluctuations.
- An assessment of the prospects for integrating BIM into construction practices.
- An assessment of the use of FIDIC-type standard contracts within the domestic institutional framework.
- The review of the provisions of Presidential Decree 71/2019 concerning the Registers of Technical Professionals once the current review is completed.
- The effort to register SATE with FiEC and
- Further strengthening of cooperation with the Regional Offices of SATE.