Greece in Institutional Decline: 60-day update

Addendum to the Joint Civil Society Submission

to the European Commission on the 2024 Rule of Law Report

Civil society organisations have reiterated to the European Committee their serious concerns about the backsliding of the country's institutions, in the context of its annual supervision of the Rule of Law operation in the countries of the European Union.

On January 2023, independent organisations Vouliwatch, Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), HIAS Greece, Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR) and Reporters United submitted our report to the European Commission’s annual monitoring of Member States’ systems through its  Rule of Law ReportIn our submission, we documented persisting deficiencies and emerging threats to the rule of law in Greece.

With an addendum that we submitted to the European Commission as part of its consultations with institutions and entities in Greece in mid-March, we highlight new and ongoing violations of the Rule of Law principles in our country, such as:

• The head-on conflict of the Greek authorities with the EU institutions and their direct challenge, through public interventions by the Administrative Plenary of the Supreme Court and senior government officials against the European Parliament Resolution of February 7, 2024 on the Rule of Law in the country, a conflict that is reiterated with recent questioning of the functioning of the European Public Prosecutor's Office.
• The ineffectiveness of judicial investigations, as reflected by new convictions of the country by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for flawed criminal investigations of incidents of arbitrariness by the security forces, but also delays and interference in the investigation of the surveillance scandal and the Tempi accident.
• The new reform of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, as another example of bad legislation and significant violations of constitutional provisions, fundamental rights and principles of criminal law.

Based on the above, we reiterate our call to the European Commission to formulate concrete and strict recommendations to Greece, in order to ensure effective compliance of the country with Rule of Law principles and EU values.