By Ioanna Mandrou

A package of changes was announced by the Minister of Justice, Giorgos Floridis, in order to speed up the decision-making procedures by the Council of State, which is often criticized for delaying the settlement of many cases.

The Minister of Justice, in the context of a conference held (Invest.gr), where he participated on the topic of “Economy and Justice”, stated, among other things, that soon, a new Procedure for the Council of State will be ready, with the aim of the faster settlement of cases from the Supreme Court.

As the minister pointed out, according to the new arrangement, from now on all cases, which will be brought to the CoE, will be charged personally to a specific judge, who will be responsible for their management.

The new regulations, according to the Minister of Justice, will contribute to gaining time, so that the cases, when they reach the audience, are completely ready, so that their adjudication is not postponed.

“If, the minister stressed, there are any deficiencies in the case file, the party will be asked to complete them” and added that the cases will arrive completely ready for examination, either at the level of the judicial council or at the audience, if it is judged that they are serious for to reach trial.

Mr. Floridis referred to the need to speed up procedures, to administrative justice, pointing out that “the business world is very interested, whether it is foreign or domestic investment, that things move quickly, for investments or when it comes to for cases related to economic activity, as for these cases there should not be many obstacles”.

In the Council of State, despite the efforts of recent years, there are pending about 11 thousand cases, while according to the latest Report of the Court for 2022, taking measures in the direction of reducing the backlog has results but it is not enough. However, according to the said Report, more than 86% of the cases that reach the Court are applications for annulment and appeals.

Otherwise, Mr. Floridis, at the conference in question, also referred to the legislative regulations for the criminal trial, repeating the bill presented by “Kathimerini tis Kyriaki”.

According to this, all sentences of more than three years henceforth will be served and those between two and three years will be partially served.

The minister also reiterated that postponements will only be given once in criminal trials and a second time only for health reasons, and with paper from a public hospital.

He also referred to arrangements for a new judicial charter in the country, which will be ready soon, while regarding the institution of criminal conciliation, (that is, the criminally controlled person agreeing with the prosecution authorities on his guilt and the sentence that will be imposed on him), the the minister stated, that such a thing will be able to proceed from now on and before the criminal prosecution, which is not the case to date.

In this way, the minister emphasized, an answer will also be given to why this institution has not “worked” to date, although criminal conciliation is provided for by law.

In any case, the Minister of Justice argued that the goal of the new regulations will be the issuance of a final decision (that is, also by the appeals court) within 550 days.

The position of Mr. Floridis on the legislative options of the Ministry of Justice was made during the 6th InvestGr Forum 2023 organized by Public Affairs And Network at the Athens Conservatory, where many ministers, important political figures and factors of the economic life of the country participated and was coordinated by I signed it.