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Christiana Stilianidou 27 • 07 • 2022

The unjustified shortening of the legislative public consultation period by the Ministry of Environment and Energy

Christiana Stilianidou
The unjustified shortening of the legislative public consultation period by the Ministry of Environment and Energy
27 • 07 • 2022

On 6-7-2022 the Ministry of Environment and Energy posted a bill for public consultation. The consultation period lasted only until 18-7-2022, violating the rules of good legislation and the legislative process set out in Law 4622/2019, as no reasons were given for this shortening of the public consultation process from the 2 weeks provided for in legislation.

According to Article 61, paragraphs 2, 3 & 4 of law 4622/2019, (Government Gazette A ‘133 / 07.08.2019),  public consultation on legislative bills is to be conducted through the website opengov.gr and should last for two weeks, which only exceptionally can be shortened to one week for sufficiently substantiated reasons, which should be mentioned in the public consultation report.  This report is prepared at the end of the consultation period and presents the comments and suggestions of those who participated in the consultation and documents whether or not they were incorporated into the final provisions. The report forms part of the final Regulatory Impact Analysis, which is also posted on the public consultation website.

Where is the problem with the rule of Law?

Good legislation is a constitutional objective and is linked to the principle of the rule of law.

 Law 4622/2019 (articles 57 et seq.) includes rules related to the law-making process and good law-making, which are also set out in the Legislative Methodology Manual. The public consultation period lasts 2 weeks and any shortening of the said consultation period should only take place in absolutely exceptional cases and for sufficiently substantiated reasons.

In this particular case, however, the Ministry of Environment and Energy determined that the consultation period for this bill would only be 12 days, without giving any justification or reason why.

Christiana Stilianidou
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