REPORTS
Violation of the legislation on public consultation by the Ministry of Environment and Energy
According to Article 61 paragraphs 2, 3 & 4 of the key transparency law (ν. 4622/2019 – ΦΕΚ Α’ 133/07.08.2019), “consultation on bills is done through the website www.opengov.gr and lasts two weeks,” and only exceptionally can be shortened to one week “for sufficiently substantiated reasons, referred to in the public consultation report accompanying the arrangement” which “is posted on the website where the consultation took place.”
On 3 June 2021, the Ministry of Environment and Energy posted on the public consultation website a bill entitled “Integrated Waste Management Framework – Integration of Directives 2018/851 and 2018/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste and Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste, the organization of the Hellenic Recycling Organization and other relevant provisions.”
The consultation was named by the Ministry of Environment as “complementary”, since at the end of 2020 (from November 19 to December 4) the consultation process on a related bill had already taken place, which was entitled, “Promotion of Recycling – Incorporation of Directives 2018/851 of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (OJ L 150/109) and 2018/852 of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 94/62 / EC on packaging and packaging waste (OJ L 150/141).”
The comparison of the two bills, though, shows that although they may concern the same issue and the incorporation of the same Directives, their content is not identical. On the contrary, the two draft laws are quite different from each other, in the sense that the most recent one contains legislation that was not included in the consultation that took place for the older bill. The newer draft law is in fact much more extensive, almost twice as long as the previous one, being 178 pages and including 102 articles, while the older one is 106 pages and includes 70 articles.
From the above we conclude that for the regulations that are not included in the first bill, but were incorporated in the second, the procedure provided for by the legislation for public consultation should be followed. However, this did not happen and the ministry violated the relevant legislation.
In this case, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Costas Skrekas, set the duration of the second consultation as one week. The legislation provides for this possibility, provided that the competent ministry has “sufficiently substantiated reasons” for shortening the consultation, which will be stated in a report that must be posted on the opengov.gr website at the end of the procedure. However, a study of the ministry material on the consultation website shows that neither the above report nor the Regulatory Impact Analysis was posted, texts that should always accompany the bill. The Ministry thus failed to explain these “sufficiently substantiated reasons” for which the consultation process was shortened, and therefore why the opportunity for civil society to take a position on important regulations that affect environmental legislation and the quality of life of millions of citizens, was also curtailed. It is worth noting that in the first consultation the necessary Post-Regulatory Impact Analysis was posted by the ministry.
In a state that adheres to the rule of law, the government strictly follows the rules of good legislation, as this presupposes the improvement of legislative work and addresses the negative consequences of bad legislative practices (such as, for example, the multiplicity and incomprehensibility of provisions that have built up over time in Greek legislation).
Furthermore, the implementation of the rules of good legislation contributes to the consolidation of citizens’ trust in state institutions and the law, as they observe that the government complies with the law, strengthening the democratic principle where citizens and bodies of public power are equal before the law. This is even more true of the public consultation process, the establishment of which allows civil society to take an active part in shaping the laws that govern a democratic society.
However, in this case, the Ministry of Environment did not apply the rules regarding the length of the consultation process, limiting the ability of citizens to express their views on the issue of waste management and recycling, an issue that is estimated to affect the lives of thousands of people.
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