REPORTS
Unjustified shortening of the public consultation period by the Ministry of Interior – July 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 18:00 on 10/07/2023 the Ministry of Interior submitted a bill entitled, “Removal of restrictions on registration in the special electoral rolls of foreign voters” to the website opengov.gr, putting it to public consultation. The consultation period would close at 8:00 on 17/07/2023, i.e. (almost) 7 days later.
However, neither in the report on the public consultation that was published on the opengov.gr website, nor in the regulatory impact analysis accompanying the draft law when it was introduced for adoption (5044/2023), was any reference found as to why the public consultation procedure would last less than the legally required 2 weeks. The regulatory impact analysis accompanying the bill during the consultation period does refer to ‘extensive parliamentary consultation’ that took place in April-May 2021 in the field relating to cooperation with other ministries and bodies, but this cannot be considered as a sufficiently substantiated or absolutely exceptional reason that can justify the shortening of the public consultation period, which is confirmed by the field in which it is recorded.
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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