By Ioanna Mandrou

Changes in the selection of the leadership of the Justice brings an order of the Ministry of Justice that was submitted late last night to the Parliament for a vote in the context of a bill concerning provisions related to the pledge.

According to the new arrangement for the selection of presidents of the Supreme Court, Council of State, Court of Audit and the selection of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, from now on the administrative plenary sessions of the courts will meet in April every year and will vote by secret ballot on five candidates for the presidency of the supreme courts, whose names will be sent to the Parliament and also to the Ministry of Justice.

By analogy, proposals will also be made for the vice-presidents of the supreme courts based on the number of positions to be filled.

The new provision comes to cover the need for the participation of the judiciary itself in the selection of its leadership, a matter which had at times concerned not only the internal political level, but also the European Commission which had submitted relevant recommendations.

The new arrangement which changes the landscape of the selection of the leadership of the Judiciary by introducing a pre-selection stage other than the Parliament that will continue to be valid, and from the judiciary itself, will be valid from the new judicial year, that is from September 16.

Thus, for this year’s selection of vice-presidents in the Supreme Court (there are 7) and in the Council of State (there are 2) but also in the Legal Council of the State (also 7 positions of vice-presidents) the process will be carried out normally with a pre-selection by the Parliament and a final decision by the ministerial council.