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 4622/2019 regulate individual issues relating to the legislative process and set certain rules that must 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, inter alia, by Article 74 par. 5 of the Constitution and Articles 87, 88 and 101(5) of the Constitution. 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 of the bill or the proposed law and if they are irrelevant to the subject in question, 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, the Section referred to in Article 71 or 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 14/11/2023, a bill entitled “Building conditions, construction, permitted land uses for data centres, spatial and urban planning regulations, utilisation of Green Fund resources and other environmental and energy provisions,” was submitted to the Parliament by the Ministry of Environment and Energy.
Two amendments were tabled to the bill after the deadline for submitting amendments had already expired, and contained provisions not directly related to any of the subjects of the bill under discussion. In particular:
1. At 22:05, 22/11/2023 amendment 32/1 22.11.2023 was submitted by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which consisted of 4 articles and regulated issues related to the payment of fees for the landfill of municipal waste to the Hellenic Recycling Organisation (E.O.AN.), the utilisation of forest biomass, the coordination of the development project of The Ellinikon and the addition of sports facilities to the permitted land uses in an area of high productivity agricultural land.
2. At 22:52, 22/11/2023 the Ministry of Health submitted amendment 33/2 22.11.2023, which consisted of a single article and regulated the issue of extending the validity of fixed-term employment contracts for the staff of Mobile Health Teams.
Both these amendments were therefore submitted after the deadline for amendments had already expired, as they were submitted the night before the adoption of the law, and were irrelevant in subject, as they contained provisions that were not directly related to the issues of the bill introduced for adoption, namely the regulation of building, zoning and urban planning issues as well as provisions for the protection of the natural environment and the strengthening of Renewable Energy Sources.
On 23/11/2023 the bill was discussed in the Plenary Session of the Parliament and Law 5069/2023 was passed, containing as articles 63 έως 67 (‘Other urgent provisions’) the provisions of the above-mentioned amendments.
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 5069/ 2023, in the context of which provisions contained in overdue and irrelevant amendments were tabled and passed.
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