{"id":14377,"date":"2023-01-27T10:34:33","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T08:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/kratos-dikaiou-koini-anafora\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T15:37:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:37:29","slug":"rule-of-law-greece-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/rule-of-law-greece-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Rule of law backsliding continues in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Rule of law backsliding continues in Greece<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Joint Civil Society Submission to the European Commission on the 2023 Rule of Law Report January 2023<\/strong><\/p>

In recent years, Greece has witnessed an alarmingly systematic democratic regression – which has been documented in a number of recent reports by international organisations and institutions, including the European Commission – and which poses a direct threat to the fundamental values of our constitution and the principles espoused by the European Union.<\/p>

The independent organisations, Vouliwatch<\/strong>, Greek Council for Refugees<\/strong> (GCR), Refugee Support Aegean<\/strong> (RSA), HIAS Greece<\/strong>, Generation 2. 0<\/strong> (Second Generation \/ Institute for Rights, Equality, Diversity) and Reporters United<\/strong>, in the context of concerns about Greece’s systematically problematic approach to key aspects of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights, have compiled a list of indicative violations of the rule of law in Greece for the year 2022.<\/p>

In this report we highlight and bring to the attention of the European Commission, cases where Greece has failed to comply with the principles of the rule of law<\/strong> in the areas of:<\/p>

* The justice system <\/b>(issues with the independence, the quality and the speed of the justice system)<\/p>

* The fight against corruption<\/b>, (issues with (a lack of) prevention measures; transparency and accountability of political money; audit institutions; public procurement & direct awards; lack of protection for whistleblowers etc.)<\/p>

* Freedom of the press<\/b> (cases of government or political interference in the media; issues with the transparency and ownership of media outlets, and a lack of transparency in state advertising; a lack of pluralism at the Athens News Agency, and the intimidation of journalists – through police intimidation or legal actions (SLAPPs), as well as the state surveillance of journalists)<\/p>

* Good legislation<\/b> (the unlawful restriction of consultation periods; the misuse of amendments; the failure to adopt delegated acts; the discriminatory application of COVID-19 pandemic response measures & fines- such as against refugees)<\/p>

* The independence of the Independent Authorities<\/b> (the limitation of the resources and powers of the Ombudsman and audit institutions; the questioning of their constitutional mandate and the serious lack of effectiveness of their investigations, including national issues such as the use of illegal spying software or illegal push backs)<\/p>

* The lack of institutional support for civil society<\/b> (such as arbitrary and disproportionate registration requirements for NGOs working with refugees and migrants, a hostile media narrative and the criminalisation of NGOs and human rights defenders)<\/p>

* And finally, the gradual undermining of the culture of the rule of law through the direct or indirect denigration of international and EU institutions and investigating bodies<\/b><\/p>

Our report features striking cases of rule of law violations in Greece during 2022<\/strong>, and demonstrates the existence of a serious threat<\/strong> to the principles of the rule of law as well as the democratic acquis more generally in our country.<\/p>

We examine cases such as the Greek government’s failure to uphold the constitutionally guaranteed inviolability of the confidentiality of communications<\/strong> through cases where the illegal spyware Predator<\/strong> has been used, as well as through cases where journalists and politicians have been surveilled (#Koukakis #EYP #Androulakis<\/strong>); the failure of the executive to investigate these cases and the blatant obstruction by the government of the independent authority\u2019s investigation of these cases<\/strong>; the disappearance of asylum seekers through illegal refugee push backs<\/strong>, and the targeting of NGOs and human rights defenders<\/strong>; the unprecedented non-compliance with the injunctions issued by the ECtHR<\/strong>, in particular regarding the assistance and rescue of third country nationals facing imminent danger at the Greek borders; restrictions on the practice of the legal profession; the widespread legal attacks increasingly faced by journalists<\/strong> (especially through SLAPP<\/strong> cases); issues with the submission and auditing of asset declaration<\/strong>s and the transparency of party funding<\/strong>; the limited protection offered to whistleblowers<\/strong>; cases of unlawful police violence<\/strong>; non-compliance with EU regulations<\/strong> and indifference to the recommendations of the Ombudsman<\/strong> or monitoring bodies<\/strong>; the extensive use of direct awarding of public contracts<\/strong> and the lack of transparency<\/strong> in the distribution of state advertising funds related to the pandemic (the Petsas List case and the role of the National Transparency Authority)<\/strong>; and finally the failure to observe good legislation practices<\/strong> as for example, in the indiscriminate insertion of last-minute and irrelevant amendments to bills about to be voted on in Parliament.<\/p>


We invite you to read the full report, share it, and join us in defending the values of the rule of law.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload the Joint Report<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Or read the Report below:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joint Civil Society Submission to the European Commission on the 2023 Rule of Law Report January 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":14379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,207,6,9,343,137],"tags":[294],"class_list":{"0":"post-14377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-publications","8":"category-other-topics","9":"category-press-releases","10":"category-reports","11":"category-rule-of-law-in-greece","12":"category-topics","13":"tag-2023-2"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14377"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14389,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14377\/revisions\/14389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}