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process (see, inter alia, p. 12-13, 67-68); amendments (see, inter alia, p. 4, 18, 63, 70-71, 77-78); the issue of repealed provisions (p. 16 and 35), and even the title of a bill (p. 18-19, 47).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 December 1, 2023 at 23:50, a bill entitled “Organizational and procedural provisions for development, interventions to strengthen an equitable development transition and other urgent provisions”, which consisted of 71 articles, was submitted for public consultation by the Ministry of National Economy and Finance.
Part B of the draft (Articles 3-25) contained organisational and procedural provisions for economic development; Part C (Articles 26-36) contained provisions to strengthen the equitable development transition; Part D (Articles 37-55) contained urgent provisions for the development of the economy [namely, provisions of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Tourism (Articles 37-44), provisions of the Ministry of Development (Articles 45-51) and provisions of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (Articles 52-55)].
Part E (Articles 56-62) contained provisions for dealing with the pandemic and strengthening social cohesion, Part F (Articles 63-66) contained urgent provisions of the Ministry of Culture and Part G (Articles 67-70) contained provisions under the responsibility of the Ministries of Citizen Protection and Education, Religious Affairs and Sport. It should be noted at this point that the Regulatory Impact Analysis accompanying the draft listed the Ministries of National Economy and Finance, Health, Social Cohesion and Family, Culture, Foreign Affairs and Citizen Protection, and that four legislative topics were ticked as central themes of the legislation, (economic/fiscal/tax policy, social policy, public administration/public order/justice, development/investment). This also indicates the wide range of issues regulated by the bill.
The consultation was set to close on 8 December 2023 at 09:00, (almost) 7 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 reason for the shortened public consultation period from two weeks to not quite one was found in the regulatory impact analysis accompanying the bill when it was submitted to the Parliament.
On 9 December 2023, the above draft law was submitted to Parliament, with the same title but now consisting of 98 articles. However:
(a) 28 articles of the draft law in question (articles 36, 39, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 63, 64, 65, 73, 74, 79, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97) were not found in the corresponding draft submitted for public consultation, and therefore do not appear to have undergone public consultation; and
b) in the regulatory impact analysis accompanying this draft, more ministries have been added to those mentioned above as having responsibility for the law, (the Ministries of Infrastructure and Transport, Development, Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, Interior, Immigration and Asylum, Digital Governance and the Minister of State have been added) and the thematic areas of legislation has also been increased (the education-culture sector has also been “ticked”), which indicates a further increase in the scope of the law.
On 18 December 2023 at 22:55, amendment 68/23/18-12-2023 was tabled by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. This amendment consisted of 7 articles, which regulated issues related to the company «ΑΝΑΠΛΑΣΗΣ ΑΘΗΝΑ ΑΕ», the operation of power plants and the extensions of various environmental and development deadlines.
Later that day, at 23:50, the amendment 69/24/18-12-2023 was submitted by the Ministries of Economy and Finance and Health. This amendment consisted of 10 articles, which regulated issues related to the supplementary state budget for the fiscal year 2023, the granting of financial aid to support tourism in Rhodes, the company «ΛΑΡΚΟ», the contracts for the transfer and management of receivables, the VAT rate on non-alcoholic beverages, the Hellenic Aviation Industry SA, the ESPA Executive Structure of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family, the expenditure of the “University of Thessaly-Special Account for Research Funds” for the protection of public health in the Region of Thessaly due to bad weather, the compensation of travelling medical, nursing and other staff and the extension of the stay of doctors who have completed the period of training in their speciality and, finally, the salaries of Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Deputy Ministers who are not members of Parliament.
A third amendment was tabled at 23:55, 70/25/18-12-2023 by the Ministry of Interior. These 8 articles regulated issues related to language certificates, Service Secretaries, OTA employees, the number of deputy mayors in municipalities consisting of more than 4 municipal units, the taking out of loans by first-tier OTAs, the possibility of appointing unpaid deputy regional governors as well as the establishment of a Special Secretary position in the Region of Attica, the secondments to the offices of regional governors and the extension of staff contracts and posts of employees of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum.
It is noted at this point that all 3 of the above amendments:
(a) were tabled the night before the opening of the debate in the Plenary and therefore after the deadline for submitting amendments had already expired; and
b) contained a total of 25 articles, the majority of which are neither related to each other nor to the other provisions of the draft law,
On 18 December 2023, the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs prepared a report recommending the acceptance of the above draft law, in principle, article by article and as a whole.
The bill was discussed in the Plenary of the Parliament on 19 and 20 December 2023 and Law 5079/2023, consisting of 123 articles, was passed.
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 5079/2023.
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