REPORTS
Unjustified shortening of the public consultation period by the Ministry of Interior – January 2024
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).
On 24/01/2024 at 19:40, the Minister of State submitted a bill entitled “Equality in civil marriage, amendment of the Civil Code and other provisions” for public consultation. The consultation was set to end at 21:00 on 31/01/2024, i.e. 7 days later.We also note that:
(a) the report on the public consultation has not been posted on the opengov.gr website; and
b) 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 adoption (see Law 5089/2024) was there any documentation (or even a reference) to any reason why the public consultation procedure lasted less than 2 full weeks.
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 Interior submitted a bill for public consultation for a period of only seven days, without giving any reasons for the shortening of the consultation period.
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