Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) A fact-finding mission by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) to Greece regarding the state of the rule of law was scheduled to take place as of May 2022. Ever since, both Greece’s New Democracy ruling party and its European political family, the EPP, have been trying to convince anyone who would listen that the mission cannot visit the country, as it is preparing for elections.
Meanwhile, almost a year later, an election date has not been officially announced. Following the tragic train accident in Tempi, in yet another attempt to obstruct the Committee, the government addressed letters to the LIBE committee and invoked a period of national mourning in a desperate attempt to avoid scrutiny over the rule of law in Greece.
However, this national mourning ended before the mission eventually arrived in Athens on 6 March 2023. National elections had not yet been officially called. It was only on the 28 March that the Prime Minister announced the government’s intention to hold elections on 21 May 2023.
Nevertheless, the country’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his ministers and colleagues hid themselves from the MEPs investigating the shady affairs behind the rule of law in Greece. Even the President of the Republic and the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court refused to to meet with them.
They belittled the mission of the European Parliament via their pronounced absence from the meetings, and also disparaged the role of MEPs as a whole, to the point that in the Greek parliament there was talk of them as “someone who came here.” This is an absolute and undiluted insult to the elected representatives of European citizens.
On the one hand, the Mitsotakis government refused to talk to the LIBE fact-finding mission, yet on the other they were more than happy to convene – and rightly so – with Justice Commissioner Reynders, who visited Greece a mere week after LIBE with a similar agenda and meetings schedule. For the elected MEPs, the Prime Minister and his colleagues found every possible excuse not to face the truth. But the truth is there.
The rule of law in Greece is deteriorating, and the government was desperate to hide this deterioration from the LIBE Committee and the European Parliament.
They tried in vain, exposing our country internationally with their game of hide-and-seek, as MEPs did their job as per their mandate and met with heads of independent authorities, representatives of NGOs and scientific bodies, former prosecutors, and journalists.
The initial text produced by the Committee at the end of the mission, rife with grave observations on rule of law and democracy in Greece, was stern, much more so than any other concerning the country since the years of the military junta. Among other scourges, the country is plagued by deficiencies regarding institutional order and the proper functioning of powers in a democracy, problematic delivery of justice, inhumane treatment of immigrants and refugees, poor media quality, press distribution monopoly, systematic direct awarding of state contracts without competitive tendering, and the murder of a journalist that remains unsolved.
The government refused to cooperate with the official fact-finding mission, to which it was beholden to provide convincing answers and explanations, both for its deeds and its omissions.
Mr Reynders was able to do his job, while the European Parliament mission was obstructed from doing the same; but that does not mean that the Committee will not carry through. Rule of Law in Greece was once again on the EP agenda for the March Mini-Plenary, making for another heated debate.
Meanwhile, while the Greek government scorned the European Parliament, conjuring mourning as an excuse, two bills were brought to the Greek parliament in which the governing party holds the parliamentary majority. One relates to the privatisation of water and the other to the privatisation of a children’s cancer hospital.
For new rules pertaining to the privatisation of basic human rights such as water and public health, there was neither mourning nor alleged electoral obstruction.
According to the ruling party’s plans, the Greek parliament had more “deals” to close before the upcoming national elections, but the European Parliament was not, according to Mitsotakis’ government, able do its job.
Such institutional indecency is not in line with the values and principles of the EU. This is not the Europe we aspire to, the Europe we need.
Respect for democracy and the rule of law is an existential issue for the EU. As such, EU leadership ought to safeguard it with determination, reliability, serious-mindedness, and uniform criteria for all Member States.
