REPORTS
Unjustified shortening of the public consultation period by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs – February 2023
Articles 57 et seq. of law 4622/2019 contain provisions on the legislative procedure and the principles of good lawmaking. According to Article 61 of the above law, public consultation is to be carried out on legislative bills through the website www.opengov.gr and should last for two (2) weeks.
The consultation period may be shortened by up to one (1) week or extended for one (1) more week, for sufficiently documented reasons, which shall be stated in the regulatory impact analysis accompanying the regulation. As the Handbook of Legislative Methodology states, public consultation “is not just a necessary formal procedure, but an essential stage of the legislative process” which serves the principles of good lawmaking, including democratic legitimacy and transparency (see pp. 13-14). At the same time, any shortening of the consultation period should take place “only in absolutely exceptional cases and for sufficiently documented reasons” (see p. 68).
At 23:45 on 08/02/2023, the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs posted on the website opengov.gr the draft law, “We live together in harmony – Breaking the Silence”: regulations for the prevention of violence and bullying in schools and other provisions”, putting it to public consultation.
The consultation period was set to close at 9:00 on 20/02/2023, i.e. (almost) 12 days later. However, neither in the regulatory impact analysis accompanying the draft law during the consultation, nor in the regulatory impact analysis accompanying the draft law when it was introduced for enactment (see Law 5029/2023) was any reference found as to why the public consultation period was set to less than 2 weeks, as required by law. Finally, it should be noted that the report on the public consultation has not been posted on the opengov.gr website.
Good lawmaking is a constitutional objective linked to the rule of law.
Articles 57 et seq. of Law 4622/2019 include rules related to the legislative process and good lawmaking, which are also detailed in the Manual of Legislative Methodology. These establish that bills should be subject to a public consultation period of 2 weeks, which may be shortened to one week only in absolutely exceptional cases, and for sufficiently documented reasons.
In this particular case, however, the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs submitted a bill for public consultation for a period of only (almost) 12 days, without giving any reasons for the shortening of the consultation period.
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