Adherence to good lawmaking principles is linked to the rule of law. To ensure the production of good legislation, provisions of the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament regulate individual issues related to the legislative process and set certain rules that must be followed when drafting and submitting a bill or an amendment for voting (see, inter alia, Articles 74, 75 of the Constitution, Articles 85, 87, 88 and 101 and in general Articles 84-123 and 160 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament). Furthermore, law 4622/2019 regulates, through Articles 57 to 64, issues of legislative procedure and good legislation.
Based on these general rules and Article 59 paragraph 5 of law 4622/2019, the Manual of Legislative Drafting Methodology, issued in 2020, analyses and specifies the rules that must be observed in the framework of the legislative drafting process. This handbook provides, inter alia, instructions and directions regarding: the public consultation process (see, inter alia, p. 12-13, 67-68); amendments (see, inter alia, p. 4, 18, 63, 70-71, 77-78); the issue of repealed provisions (p. 16 and 35), and even the title of a bill (p. 18-19, 47).
On 13 September 2023 at 22:45, a bill entitled “Reform of the system of governance of first and second degree local authorities, abolition of legal persons under public law of municipalities, monitoring of local government performance and other provisions” was put to public consultation by the Ministry of Interior.
This draft consisted of 45 articles, which regulated issues related to the system of governance of local authorities (Part B, Articles 3-23), the abolition of legal persons under public law and public utilities of municipalities (Part C, Articles 24-29), the monitoring of local government performance (Part D, Article 30), the financial management of local authorities (Part E, Articles 31-35), the welfare of pets (Part E, Articles 36-39) and the construction and upgrading of land border posts (Part E, Articles 40-42). The consultation was set to close on 26 September at 10:00, i.e. 13 (almost) days later.
Despite the requirements of Article 61 of Law No. 4622/2019: a) the report on the public consultation has not been posted on the opengov.gr website and b) no documentation (or even a reference) of the reason why the public consultation lasted for less than the required two weeks was found in the regulatory impact analysis that accompanied the draft law when it was introduced for adoption.
On September 26, 2023, the bill was submitted to the Parliament for voting, having the title “Reform of the system of governance of local government organizations of the first and second degree, abolition of legal persons under public law of municipalities, monitoring of local government performance, financial and administrative management of local government organizations, welfare of pets, construction and upgrading of operating land border stations and other provisions of the Ministry of Interior“ and consisting of 51 articles.
We note that Articles 9, 10, 20, 38, 39, 40 were not found in the corresponding draft that underwent public consultation.
On October 2, 2023 at 21:40, the amendment 21/3/2-10-2023 was tabled by the Ministry of Interior. This amendment contained 3 articles, which regulated issues concerning the appointment of local government positions, the granting of an advance payment to the beneficiaries of an operation for restoration in areas declared in a state of emergency and the transport of schoolchildren. This amendment: a) was tabled just the day before the law was passed and therefore after the deadline for submitting amendments had already expired and b) contained provisions regulating issues that were not related in any way to the objects of the bill introduced for voting, which is confirmed by the inclusion of the provisions in question in Chapter D (“Other urgent provisions”) of Part E (“Other provisions under the competence of the Ministry of Interior”) of the Law.
On October 2, 2023, the Standing Committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice prepared a report recommending the acceptance, by majority vote, of the bill.
On 3 October 2023, the bill was discussed in the Plenary Session of the Parliament and Law 5056/2023 was passed, consisting of 54 articles.
It should be noted in passing that in 2023, 2 other laws (Law 5027/2023 and Law 5043/2023) had already been passed which extensively regulated issues related to Local Government Organizations.
In a state governed by the rule of law, the Government and the Parliament must, in the process of preparing and passing legislation, follow the principles of good lawmaking and apply the rules established to promote and ensure it. This is because good lawmaking is linked to the constitutional principles of transparency and legal certainty, and the application of its rules and principles seek to avoid the phenomena of maladministration and omnibus legislation, which are inconsistent with the principles of the rule of law.
In Greece, however, the violation of these rules of good lawmaking appears to be a long-standing and systematic problem, as highlighted by the legislative journey of Law 5056/2023.
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