Adherence to good lawmaking principles is linked to the rule of law. To ensure the production of good legislation, provisions of the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament regulate individual issues related to the legislative process and set certain rules that must be followed when drafting and submitting a bill or an amendment for voting (see, inter alia, Articles 74, 75 of the Constitution, Articles 85, 87, 88 and 101 and in general Articles 84-123 and 160 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament). Furthermore, law 4622/2019 regulates, through Articles 57 to 64, issues of legislative procedure and good legislation.
Based on these general rules and Article 59 paragraph 5 of law 4622/2019, the Manual of Legislative Drafting Methodology, issued in 2020, analyses and specifies the rules that must be observed in the framework of the legislative drafting process.
This handbook provides, inter alia, instructions and directions regarding: the public consultation process (see, inter alia, p. 12-13, 67-68); amendments (see, inter alia, p. 4, 18, 63, 70-71, 77-78); the issue of repealed provisions (p. 16 and 35), and even the title of a bill (p. 18-19, 47).
On 17 November 2023 at 22:00, a bill entitled “Acceleration of the procedures for the completion of the Hellenic Cadastre: Processing of pending issues in real estate transfers and strengthening the operational function of the legal entity under public law called “Hellenic Cadastre” – Simplification and acceleration of real estate transfer procedures -Regulations under the competence of the Ministry of Digital Governance” was submitted for public consultation by the Ministry of Digital Governance.
This draft consisted of 33 articles, which regulated issues relating to the Cadastre, or Land Register (Part B, Articles 3-21) and the procedure for the transfer of property (Part C, Articles 22-24).
In addition, Part D of the said draft (Articles 25-29) contained other regulations within the competence of the Ministry of Digital Governance, which related to the preparation of the data classification study, the use of the National Research Foundation building, compensation to telecommunications service providers, the procedure for the payment of contractors for projects implemented by the Information Society, as well as the staffing of “HDIKA S.A.”. It should be noted at this point that Part D appears to regulate a variety of unrelated issues, both within themselves and with the provisions of the other Parts.
The consultation was set to close on 30 November 2023 at 09:00, 13 (almost) days later. It is noted at this point that, despite what is provided for in Article 61 of Law No. 4622/2019: a) the report on the public consultation has not been posted on the opengov.gr website and b) no documentation (or even a reference) to any reason why the public consultation lasted less than two weeks was found in the regulatory impact analysis accompanying the draft law when it was submitted to the Parliament.
On 1 December 2023, the bill, consisting of 35 articles, was submitted to the Parliament for adoption. Articles 12 and 15 of the draft do not appear to have been included in the corresponding draft law that was submitted for consultation.
On Friday, 8 December 2023 at 22:35, amendment 53/1/8-12-2023 was tabled by the Ministry of Development. This amendment consisted of 1 article, which concerned the price observatory for children’s toys, “Santa’s basket”.
This amendment, however, was tabled on a Friday evening, despite the fact that Rule 87 of the Rules of Procedure states that the tabling of amendments on Friday shall take place “not later than 1 p.m.”; and furthermore, it regulated an issue which was in no way related to the other issues regulated by the draft law, a fact confirmed by the inclusion of the article in question in Part F of the law.
On Friday, December 8, 2023, the Standing Committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice prepared a report recommending the acceptance, by majority vote, of the bill in its entirety.
On Monday, December 11, 2023, the bill was discussed in the Plenary of the Parliament and Law 5076/2023 was passed, consisting of 35 articles.
In a state governed by the rule of law, the Government and the Parliament must, in the process of preparing and passing legislation, follow the principles of good lawmaking and apply the rules established to promote and ensure it. This is because good lawmaking is linked to the constitutional principles of transparency and legal certainty, and the application of its rules and principles seek to avoid the phenomena of maladministration and omnibus legislation, which are inconsistent with the principles of the rule of law.
In Greece, however, the violation of these rules of good lawmaking appears to be a long-standing and systematic problem, as highlighted by the legislative journey of Law 5076/2023.
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