Digital Development Control in European Planning Systems: A Comparative Perspective from Greece and The Netherlands

Across Europe, digital transformation is reshaping planning systems and development control, where planning rules and building standards are operationalized in practice. This article examines how digital permitting systems, as part of wider regulatory infrastructures, mediate rather than simply automate development control processes. The study adopts a qualitative comparative case-study approach, examining Greece and the Netherlands as contrasting institutional settings. Conceptually, the study builds on planning scholarship on development control and is informed by perspectives on regulation and socio-technical infrastructures. The empirical analysis draws on legislation, administrative and policy documents, judicial decisions, professional and technical material, and limited practitioner confirmation. The Greek e-Adeies system and the Dutch Digitaal Stelsel Omgevingswet (DSO) are examined along three dimensions: institutional embedding; allocation of authority and permissibility control; and responsibility, accountability, and legal oversight. The comparison reveals two distinct configurations of digital development control. In Greece, e-Adeies combines automatic permit issuance with a redistribution of prior control, increased reliance on professional inputs, and post-issuance oversight mechanisms. In the Netherlands, the DSO integrates rules, information, and application procedures across multiple levels of government while substantive decision-making remains with competent authorities. The central finding is that digital integration can centralize access to regulatory information and procedures without necessarily centralizing substantive decision-making authority or altering its formal allocation. Digital permitting systems do not simply reflect existing planning-system characteristics. They interact with legal and institutional arrangements to shape how regulatory information, control functions, responsibilities, and oversight are organized.