Parliamentary Scientific Council for Rammos: No one appears unsolicited

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The opinion of the Scientific Council on the legal way of sending the letters of the president of ADAE to the Parliament

The opinion of the Scientific Council on the letters sent by the president of ADAE Mr. Christos Rammos in the Parliament requesting his hearing by the Committee on Institutions and Transparency, the president of the Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas asked and received about “whether based on the Constitution, the laws or the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament you can convene in this way this particular or other Committees of the Parliament”. The Scientific Council considered that the letters of the president of the ADAE that were sent to the president of the Institutions and Transparency Committee and communicated to the president of the Parliament Konstantinos Tassoulas in order to be invited to inform “on matters of public interest within the Authority’s competence” considered that according to the article 69 of the Constitution: “No one appears in Parliament unsolicited to report anything orally or in writing. Petitions are presented by a member of parliament or delivered to the President.” It should be pointed out that according to article 11 par. 7 of the Civil Code “the President of the Parliament represents the Parliament judicially and extrajudicially”.

Especially with regard to the Committee on Institutions and Transparency, which has as its “subject the parliamentary control of independent authorities, the Scientific Council, after making an extensive and detailed reference to the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, points out that what emerges is “that the extra-parliamentary persons, with the exception of Ministers and Deputy Ministers who do not have parliamentary status”, “cannot, in general, appear before Parliament on their own initiative”. They note that according to the Constitution, the independent authorities submit to the president of the Parliament the report of their activities, their special reports on matters of their competence or reports on the promotion and resolution of issues related to the fulfillment of their mission and all these “the President of the Parliament forwards them to the House Committees” adding that “on the other hand, as regards the reports of the independent authorities, the President of the Parliament forwards them to the Standing Committee on Institutions and Transparency, which can express its views in writing to the President of the Parliament of these reports”.

The Scientific Council of the Parliament also points out that “the reports of the independent authorities to the President of the Parliament must refer to the issues related to the fulfillment of their mission” and any “general report is not sufficient”. Among other things, the members of the Scientific Council add that reports with “an indication of the manner (public or secret meeting) in which the Committee will meet” are not provided for by the Code of Conduct, such as “nor the indication of notification of a document to the members of the Commission”.

In the “thereby” of the opinion of the Scientific Council of the Parliament, it is summarized that:

1. The letters of the president of ADAE to the president of the Institutions and Transparency Committee had to be addressed to the President of the Parliament. Notifying them to the president of the Institutions and Transparency Committee is the competence and responsibility of the president of the Parliament.

2. In the second letter of the president of ADAE to the president of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency (of January 20, 2023), the issues concerning the manner of fulfilling the mission of ADAE are indeed clarified. It seems that the content of paragraph 6 of article 8 of law 5002/2022 is being invoked as a way of fulfilling the mission of ADAE, in accordance with the above regulation of the Code of Civil Procedure. However, the said regulation of Law 5002/2022 has as its object the information, individually, of the president of the Parliament, the leaders of the parties represented in the Parliament and the Minister of Justice on matters of declassification of communications.

3. […] The Committees are called to a meeting by their president […] when requested by the government or its members […] when the majority requests it or 2/5 of its members request it. No one else therefore has the authority to request or indicate, in general, the convening of a meeting of a Committee of the House, nor, much less, the authority to indicate its mode of operation (for example, whether its meeting will be open or secret). . In this regard, it is clarified that, in the second letter of the president of ADAE that he sent to the Institutions Committee, it is indeed stated that he does not consider his relevant request binding on the competent bodies of the Parliament.

4. For the notification of a document, originating from an independent authority, to the members of the Institutions and Transparency Committee, it must first be sent to the president of the Parliament.

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