Adherence to good lawmaking principles is linked to the rule of law. To ensure the production of good legislation, provisions of the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament and Law No. 4622/2019 regulate individual issues relating to the legislative process and set certain rules to be followed when drafting, filing and voting on a bill or an amendment.
How, when, in what form and with what content ministerial amendments are submitted, discussed and voted on is regulated by Article 74 par. 5 of the Constitution and Articles 87, 88 and 101(5) of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament.
In this context it is stipulated, inter alia, that amendments: a) must be related to the main subject matter of the bill or the proposed law and if they are irrelevant to that subject matter they are not introduced for debate and b) are debated only if they have been submitted at least three days before the beginning of the debate in the Plenary or in the relevant standing 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 05/01/2023 the Ministry of Interior submitted to Parliament a bill entitled “Multi-level governance and risk management in the public sector”.
Three amendments were subsequently tabled to the bill, all of which were submitted after the deadline for amendments had passed, and all of which, furthermore, contained provisions that were not directly related to the main subject matter that the bill pertained to.
1. At 21:45 on 16/01/2023,the Ministry of Interior submitted amendment 1548/147/16-1-2023, which consisted of only one article and regulated issues related to the appointment of staff in local authorities.
2. At 23:20 on 16/01/2023, the Ministry of Interior submitted amendment 1549/148/16-1-2023, which consisted of 9 articles, regulating a number of issues including the responsibilities, the term of office and the composition of various bodies of local authorities.
3. At 23:59 on 16/01/2023, amendment 1550/149/17-1-2023 was tabled, consisting of 6 articles containing provisions regulating various issues including the determination of the minimum wage for the year 2023, the extension of the granting of unemployment benefits and allowances.
On 17/01/2023, the bill was debated in the Plenary of Parliament and Law 5013/2023 was passed containing the provisions entered in these amendments as Articles 29 to 44, despite the fact that the amendments with which they were introduced for adoption were both submitted late and were irrelevant in topic, contrary to the rules of good lawmaking.
Under the rule of law, the government and the Parliament must produce laws by applying the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament and 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 lawmaking seems to be a long-standing, systematic problem, such as in this case of the passage of Law No. 5013/2023, in the context of which provisions contained in overdue and irrelevant amendments were tabled and passed.
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