Company establishment in Greece

By Socrates Vrysopoulos

Socrates Vrysopoulos is the Senior Partner of Vrysopoulos Law Offices in Greece, a partner of Ketenci&Ketenci

http://www.vrysopoulos.com/ 


Greece is a country that offers many business opportunities and holds a major position globally in the industries of shipping, tourism and agricultural production. The current financial crisis has lead the Government to move rapidly towards measures that will enhance financial development and at the same time, will eliminate bureaucracy, within a context of simplified legislation and procedures, starting with the process of constituting a company in Greece.

The new legislation brought about and enacted in May 2010, with actual effect in October 2010, is an effective tool at the hands of any investor as well as existing establishments, that will allow them to engage and enhance their activities and businesses in Greece, since this legislation purports to simplify the current process of making a company in Greece, by reducing time, costs and more importantly, bureaucracy. This new type of "one stop" establishment, is to be taken in its literal sense, as from October 2010, everyone can establish any type of company (acknowledged under the Greek Company Law legislation) within 1 day.

For the effective functioning of this new process, a wide network of service providers will be set up, that will consist of 100 branches of the Chamber of Commerce and also with the assistance of the 3.200 public notaries that function in Greece. For the so called "personal companies", which constitute small legal entities, the branches of the Chamber of Commerce will be authorised to perform all necessary steps for the establishment and as for the limited liability and S.A. companies, public notaries will be performing the neccesary actions, since, according to the Greek Company Law, a public document is required for the establishment of these types of companies. As mentioned, the establishment process is swift, the whole procedure could be concluded within 1 day only.