In the context of today’s meeting of the EU General Affairs Council, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis had the opportunity to present the government’s initiatives for strengthening transparency, accelerating judicial procedures and facilitating the digitisation of the public sector in the Annual Rule of Law Dialogue country-specific discussion, garnering very positive comments from the Justice Commissioner, Didier Reynders and his European colleagues. As the Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs noted, “for our government, transparency was one of the top priorities, and this is why, when it came to power in 2019, it established the National Transparency Authority, and at the same time, we are strengthening the independence of the Judiciary through our central choices.” It is significant that, during the discussion of the relevant Report, Greece drew praise for the progress of the Greek government’s reforms for strengthening the Rule of Law and the independence of the Judiciary.
More specifically, Mr. Varvitsiotis underscored that the recovery package is creating excellent potential for funding changes that would have been impossible to make in the past, such as digitisation of the public sector, which was accelerated during the pandemic. He noted that “while Greece had lagged behind overall in terms of digital transformation of public administration, thousands of different administrative acts can now be carried out on the gov.gr platform.” The digital age, he underlined, is solving a problem of over-regulation and bureaucracy, limiting corruption.
Mr. Varvitsiotis stressed that the pandemic-related restrictions that were implemented followed the principles of proportionality, limited duration and democratic transparency, as they were passed by Parliament and supported by virtually all of the political parties. This triptych, he added, was in full accordance with the principles of the Greek Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which he led during the second half of 2020, culminating in the preparation of the Athens Declaration.
The Alternate Minister also referred to the incorporation of Community law on transparency into the ownership regime of media outlets, the increased guarantees of transparency and accountability introduced by the government for government officials and politicians, and the operational transparency registry for NGOs involved in the refugee sector.
Finally, Mr. Varvitsiotis made special reference to the murder of Giorgos Karaivaz, “which has concerned us, saddened us and worried us,” adding that “we are determined, in accordance with the instructions of the Prime Minister, to move ahead as fast as possible, and the political leadership is responsible for providing all the necessary means for solving the journalist’s murder case as soon as possible.” He also informed his European colleagues that, in spite of the negative image created at a time when the country is moving forward, journalists do not come under attack from the state in Greece. In contrast, he noted, “specific groups –either of extreme left or extreme right – attack people who express their views, attacking their reputation and their offices, with the latter, however, falling within the category of terrorist attacks.”
