REPORTS
The unjustified shortening of the legislative public consultation period by the Ministry of Justice
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.
On 15-11-2022 the Ministry of Justice and the Minister of State posted a bill for public consultation entitled, “Procedure for the removal of the confidentiality of communications, cybersecurity and the protection of personal data of citizens.” The consultation ended on 22-11-2022, i.e. 7 days later. However, 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 5002/2022),was any reason given for the shortened public consultation process. It should be mentioned that the changes made by this piece of legislation were to gain significant import in the coming months with the wiretapping scandal revelations.
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 Justice determined that the consultation period for this bill would only be 7 days, without giving any justification or reason why.
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