Frontal conflict occurred on Thursday between Giorgos Floridis and Zoe Konstantopoulou during the second debate of the bill for the modernization of the Council of State and the faster issuance of judicial decisions to the relevant committee of the Parliament.

The occasion was the intervention of the president of Freedom of Navigation during the hearing of the bodies, who requested the withdrawal of the bill, denouncing the leadership of the Ministry of Justice, for “insufficient and substantial consultation with all involved bodies”, for “fast-tracking parliamentary procedures ” and “violation of human rights and the rule of law”.

The Minister of Justice reacted strongly, objecting that the bill was in consultation for 23 days and all those who were really interested in the new regulations submitted their opinions and it was passed by a decision of the plenary session of the CoE”.

“If we say that we respect democracy and institutions, we must also respect them. Let’s respect the highest process which is the consultation”, emphasized Mr. Floridis while accusing Ms. Konstantopoulou of violating the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament.

“Bowling is not acceptable to us,” added Mr. Floridis, provoking the reaction of Mrs. Konstantopoulou, who spoke of ridiculous reports about consultation and added that “the rule of law is not limited to what whoever saw it, saw it or he should have known.”

“The regulation of the Parliament is being flagrantly violated. Today’s meeting is for non-parliamentary bodies. For the first time in parliamentary history, there is an intervention in the hearing of bodies”, said the general rapporteur of the ND, Athanasios Zambilis.

The views of the agencies

The president of the Union of Judicial Officers of the Council of State, Panagiotis Tsoukas, said he was positive about the bill, speaking of the most important reform that has ever been made since the establishment of the CoE.

As he emphasized, “the aim of the new legislative initiative is to rationalize and treat the causes and the basic logic that governs it is to change the annulment procedure and to address the problem of the long delays observed in the issuance of judicial decisions”.

“The Ministry of Justice consulted very well, with all the judges, and the main purpose is to conduct serious trials with diligence and in a short time,” emphasized Mr. Tsoukas.

For his part, the member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Judicial Officers of the Supreme Court, Dimitris Tsarouhas, expressed reservations about the feasibility of the provision for the digital authorization of the party to the lawyer.

The representative of the Athens Bar Association, Vassilis Papageorgiou, was strongly critical of the bill, stressing that “as the provisions are introduced in the context of the annulment trial, contradictions and sloppiness are observed that are not consistent with the purpose of the reforms and the acceleration of the procedures”.
He also spoke of piecemeal regulations, suffocating deadlines and unstable criteria for annulment proceedings.

The president of the Bar Association of Lamia and representative of the plenary session of the presidents of the Bar Associations of Greece, Thanasis Makrygiannis, also expressed his opposition to the bill, arguing, among other things, that it degrades the appeal, restrictions are placed on the exercise of judicial rights, procedural rights are curtailed, while they are not resolved serious issues such as long delays in decision-making.
“The bill is moving in the right direction, in a good line”, emphasized the representative of the Federation of Judicial Officers of Greece, Georgia Kalantzi.

The president of the Union of Judicial Officers of the Court of Audit, Konstantinos Efentakis, expressed his complete satisfaction with the provisions of the bill, pointing out that their requests were fully adopted, while the views of the president of the Association of CoE Employees, Marina Stavropoulou, were in the same direction. adding that “the reform aims to speed up justice and as long as there is no circumvention of the pre-trial, the desired result will come”.
For her part, the president of the Association of Judicial Officers of the Administrative Courts of Athens, Fotini Rozi, focused on the understaffing of the courts, noting that while the positions of advisers in the CoE are increasing, the positions of judicial officers are not increasing, with the result that the ratio is unbearable.

Finally, the general secretary of the Panhellenic Union of Secretaries of Administrative Courts, emphasized the necessity of immediate interventions to cover the vacant organizational positions in the courts, otherwise, as he estimated, it will cause a brake on the goal of the bill for a faster administration of justice.