Good lawmaking is a constitutional objective and is linked to the principle of the rule of law. The Constitution, the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament and Law No. 4622/2019 regulate a number of issues relating to the legislative process and set certain rules that should be followed when drafting, filing and voting on a bill or an amendment.
How, when, in what form and with what content ministerial amendments may be submitted, debated and voted on is regulated, inter alia, by Article 74 (5) of the Constitution and Articles 87, 88 and 101(5) of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament. According to these rules, amendments: a) must be related to the main subject of the bill, and if they are irrelevant to the subject in question, they are not introduced for debate and b) are introduced for debate only if they have been submitted at least three days before the beginning of the debate in the Plenary or the relevant committee (see more on issues of good lawmaking in general as well as issues of tabling and voting on amendments in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
On 30/03/2023 the Ministry of Health submitted to Parliament a bill entitled “Pharmaceutical Associations – Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Association – Institute of Pharmaceutical Scientific Research and other regulations under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health”.
At 23:58 on 04/04/2023, amendment no. 1691/256 was tabled to the bill, consisting of 11 articles which regulated a number of issues, including the staffing and expenditure of the National Health System (NHS) as well as the expenditure of military hospitals under the responsibility of the Ministry of National Defence.
This amendment was both submitted after the deadline for amendments had passed, just the evening before the vote, and was not directly related to the main subject matter of the bill.
The bill was ultimately passed as Law 5041/2023, including the provisions contained in the amendment which became Articles 93 to 103, despite the amendment’s failure to adhere to the rules of good legislation.
Under the rule of law, the government and the Parliament must produce laws in adherence with both the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, as well as the other rules that have been established to guarantee and promote good and transparent lawmaking practices.
In Greece, however, the violation of the rules of good legislation appears to be a long-standing and systematic problem.
In this case, Law No. 5041/2023 was adopted containing provisions from an amendment that was tabled at the last minute, and which was irrelevant to the main subject matter of the law itself.
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