{"id":18275,"date":"2024-01-18T12:54:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T10:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/?p=18275"},"modified":"2025-07-02T15:37:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:37:28","slug":"press-conference-greece-rule-of-law-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/press-conference-greece-rule-of-law-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Invitation to Press Conference: Greece in institutional decline: Civil society tracks persisting rule of law backsliding"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"18275\" class=\"elementor elementor-18275\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f6700d7 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"f6700d7\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d64bd0e elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"d64bd0e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><small><i>Invitation to Press Conference<\/small><\/i><br>Greece in institutional decline:<br>Civil society tracks persisting rule of law backsliding<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d78c6c4 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"d78c6c4\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6e83367 elementor-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"6e83367\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-sm\" href=\"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/rule-of-law-2024-report-greece\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">You can find the Report and video (in greek) from the Press Conference here<\/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<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1244a36 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"1244a36\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Wednesday, January 24, at 12.00, at DSA - Athens Bar Association (60 Akadimias, Athens)<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5a38263 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5a38263\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Press Release<br \/><\/strong>Athens, 18 January 2024<\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Independent organisations <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vouliwatch<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HIAS Greece<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporters United <\/span><\/i><b>invite you to a joint press conference, on Wednesday, January 24, at noon (12.00), at DSA &#8211; Athens Bar Association (60 Akadimias, Athens)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><b>Defending and strengthening the rule of law remains a core priority for Greek civil society against the backdrop of ongoing institutional decline in the country. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hosting organisations submitted our joint report to the European Commission on the rule of law in Greece in 2023, as part of the Commission&#8217;s annual monitoring of Member States\u2019 systems through its<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/commission.europa.eu\/strategy-and-policy\/policies\/justice-and-fundamental-rights\/upholding-rule-law\/rule-law\/rule-law-mechanism\/2024-rule-law-report_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rule of Law Report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><b>At the press conference, we will present this contribution, which documents persisting deficiencies and emerging threats to the rule of law in Greece.<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We identify five cross-cutting issues permeating different pillars of the rule of law in Greece:<\/span><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Surveillance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) and use of Predator spyware against high-ranking state officials, journalists and other targets;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Government interference in the work of constitutionally protected independent authorities <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as the Communication Security and Privacy Authority (ADAE), namely through unconstitutional changes to its composition, intimidation of its members and summons thereof as suspects in criminal proceedings;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Enforced disappearance of people seeking asylum in the country in the form of push backs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in continued direct contempt of European Court of Human Rights orders to provide assistance to people in distress and allow them access to asylum procedures;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Declining press freedom<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ranking last among EU countries for a second consecutive year, on account of threats and attacks, surveillance and SLAPPs against journalists;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Police violence and arbitrariness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, especially against minorities, in combination with a general perception of impunity of law enforcement bodies and a lack of effective investigations.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speakers at the press conference will present, with their interventions, the above issues, namely:<\/span><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Stefanos Loukopoulos<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Vouliwatch Director, &#8220;Good legislation-transparency&#8221;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Thodoris Chondrogiannos<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Reporters United, &#8220;Press freedom and wiretapping&#8221;<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Elli Kriona-Saranti<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Lawyer, HIAS Greece, &#8220;Effectiveness of justice (policing, pushbacks, criminalisation)&#8221;<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The press conference will be moderated by <\/span><b>Maria Louka<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Screenwriter &#8211; Journalist (News247). Athens Bar Association President, <\/span><b>Dimitrios Vervesos<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, will address an opening speech.<\/span><\/p><p><b>At the press conference, the report and executive summary we submitted to the European Commission will be released.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The press conference will be held in Greek, but the report and the summary will be available in English.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our report also highlights further breaches of rule of law principles and of international, EU and domestic legal obligations. Through our contribution, we aim to inform the rule of law monitoring process with reliable, up-to-date evidence and urge the European Commission to recommend concrete commitments from Greece to ensure effective compliance with EU foundational principles and legal obligations.<\/span><\/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\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday, January 24, at 12.00, at DSA &#8211; Athens Bar Association (60 Akadimias, Athens)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":18312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,207,5,343,137],"tags":[18],"class_list":{"0":"post-18275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-press-releases","8":"category-other-topics","9":"category-publications","10":"category-rule-of-law-in-greece","11":"category-topics","12":"tag-featured"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18275","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=18275"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18436,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18275\/revisions\/18436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}