“Now Greek justice enters definitively into the 21st century from the 19th century. This means speedy delivery, effective justice and responsiveness to its constitutional role, because justice that is not delivered in time ceases to be justice.” This was emphasized by the Minister of Justice Giorgos Floridis, speaking at the Export Summit X, organized in Thessaloniki by the Association of Exporters – SEVE.

Mr. Floridis referred to the government’s reform work in the field of Justice, speaking of a “complete reform plan” and “fundamental changes”. He also revealed that the words conveyed to him by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis when assigning him the specific portfolio were “if you can “break an egg”, there is no other way”.

Analyzing the reform plan implemented by the ministry, Mr. Floridis referred to the following:

*** Judicial Charter: “The law was passed and began to be implemented from September 16 and is in full effect. Some predicted that there would be a corruption of the Lord in Greece, absolutely nothing happened. With this change, we have an additional 1000 judges – justices of the peace who become first-instance judges, entered the judicial function of the country and their training is evolving – they will be absolutely ready by May”, said Mr. Floridis, while citing as a typical example the Court of First Instance of Athens where an additional five courts were added, and with the increase of judges from 400 to 750, it is estimated that 20,000 more criminal cases will be heard per year.

*** Acceleration in the administration of justice: The minister reiterated the goal at the end of the government’s term that the time for final decisions reach 630 days – which is the average of the countries of the Council of Europe – from 1500 to 1600 days that it is today .

*** New Civil Procedure and alternative dispute resolution methods: He characterized the new Civil Procedure Code as a “structural change” and determined its passing next spring, while for the alternative dispute resolution methods (mediation, judicial mediation, arbitration) the minister mentioned that they will be brought together in a single Code, “perhaps the best code in the world”. On this specific issue, he pointed out that the model is Italy where 30% of cases were removed from the courts and are resolved in alternative ways.

*** Transfer of court material from the courts to lawyers and digital transition: Regarding the transfer of court material (registrations – elimination of footnotes, affidavits, etc.) the minister said that from June until today 18,500 files went to lawyers and were issued approximately 140,000 affidavits. The digital transition, however, is progressing and will evolve until June

For the Thessaloniki Metro

Referring to the Thessaloniki Metro and on the occasion of reactions to the project’s logo, Mr. Floridis commented the following: “Thessaloniki are some who appear to represent it and defame it so much that they show it as if it is being eaten with its clothes on […] The image of Thessaloniki comes out of five miscreants who, however, do not concern this Thessalonica, which must appear as a city that constantly complains. My participation in central political life did not give me the impression that the center has anything to do with Thessaloniki. The Metro was not fought by Athens, it was delayed five years because a part of Thessaloniki was fighting it and it cost the Greek citizen 1 billion. euro more than if some did not fight it […] Twice the distance would have been built with this money.”

The president of the Association of Greek Industries-SVE, Loukia Sarantis, and the president of the Association of Exporters-SVE Symeon Diamantidis participated in the panel of the same section on the topic “The reforms of the Greek justice system favor investments”. Mrs. Sarantis underlined that the SBE will support with all its strength any reform effort made in the field of Justice, while he touched on the issue of regional inequality which is “unfortunately growing”. On his part, Mr. Diamantidis stood at the Metro of Thessaloniki, pointing out that although it was late “we have the most modern one in Europe” and referred to the case of the former Gonou Camp where, following an agreement of all the city’s agencies, it was decided to develop a logistic center. The discussion was moderated by journalist Cynthia Sapika.

Stelios Giamantanis