Greece

In Greece, there are several actors involved in the implementation and enforcement of the policy. The legislative power belongs to the National Parliament, which can also derogate powers to executive agencies for further specialization of the legislative measures, following the relevant constitutional provisions (art. 73 and following, 43 of the Constitution).

The greek parliament has a double role. The first one, is the legislative procedure and the second one is the parliamentary scrutinity. The executive power ( ministers) and the legislature power ( members of the parliament) have the right to suggest new laws. These proposals are published. They have to show the whole plan behind each law, articles, evidents about the cost of the law etc. After that, they sent these files to the scientific service of the parliament, to check them. Then, the proposals are sent to the legislatory administration of the parliament and are presented to the members of the parliament. Then, they discuss how they will vote for the proposals, if there will be a commettee or the assembly will have a primary role. In the end, when the voting procedure is done, during a month the President of the Hellenic Republic checks if it is the same document that the parliament has voted and if there was the required procedure followed. The law has to be published in the official government gazette.

The parliament can check the work of the government ( parliamentary scrutinity) with eight ways. 1) motion of censure: at least the 1/6 of the parliament has to sign the censure. If 151 members of the parliament, or more, vote in favour of the censure, it is succeded and the government has to call for elections. 2) reports from the citizens to express their thoughts, complaints. The member of the parliaments have the right to adapt these reports and the minister has to answer to the report of the members of the parliament during 25 days. 3) questions from the members of parliament that also the minister has to answer during twenty five days. 4) topical questions , the Prime minister and the ministers answer these questions verdably in the parliament. 5) asking documents that a mp wants to study for a public case. These files have to be given by the minister in thirty days. Only documents about military, diplomatic content or the security of the country cannot be given. 6) interpellations, if the ministers do not give the required explanations to the mp, they have the right to turn the questions to interpellations. 7) specific questions about current affairs are asked every Monday in the parliament. 8) selection boards that only the parliament has the right to made, in order to examine important affairs.

There are three ways that the EU policy is implemented through the Greek parliament. By law, a ministerial decision or a presidential decree. The implementation may also be effected through the issuance of circulars with regulative context, though this does not constitute a widely used practice in the administrative procedure.

When it comes to implementation, the executive branch takes the lead. The Executive Government is organized in ministries, each one responsible for a specific field (ex. Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Environment, etc). Ministries are further organized in administrative divisions which are responsible to oversee legislation implementation and enforcing it by using tools such as administrative and economic penalties.

In overseeing the implementation field, there are also various independent agencies such as the Consumer Protection Agency or the Protection of Personal Data Agency which is independent of the government. They can monitor the implementation of legislation and they have the authority to take legal action in case of irregularities or not right implementation.

Although the Greek legal system acknowledges the principle of the primacy of European law there are some issues. The national courts are also another actor in the implementation of EU policy. For example, if a measure of implementation is found unconstitutional it cannot be implemented.

The Greek administration is composed both of central (see above) and decentralized entities, as the Constitution provides. The latter which consist of regional administrations and municipalities has the general decisive competence for issues of their area, which is constitutionally provided for and therefore cannot be taken away. The state checks on the regional, decentralized organs, which however are considered independent and autonomous (art. 101 and following of the Constitution).

If EU policy is not implemented in the given deadline the European Commission sends a letter of compliance with a new deadline and afterward a second deadline after which begins a procedure in the Court of Justice of EU that may lead to penalties against the member state.

National actors governmental and local are involved in the process of implementation such as the Government, the President of the Democracy, executive and independent agencies, national courts and regional administrations. On the other hand, the European Commission has the role of the external actor that is monitoring and evaluates the implementation of the EU policy. The European Commission also acts as the safeguard in regards to monitoring the proper implementation and right transposition of EU policies and Treaty Articles within national settings, as highlighted by the Article 17 of the Treaty on the European Union.

### **See also:**

Three broader conclusions can be drawn. First, since the implementation is a process, rather than an event, the pattern of its development over time can – indeed does – change over time. Second, because implementation patterns change over time, it is important to
identify and discuss the factors that account for the change. Learning is one such
factor. Third, since implementation patterns change over time it is important to
move away from sterile and – as this research shows – inaccurate broad generalizations and opt for a more accurate, fine-grained, theoretically-driven
analysis capable of revealing both instances of success and failure .

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References:

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Greek parliament information:https://vouliwatch.gr/constitution

Institutions and the implementation of EU public policy in Greece: the case of public procurement:

http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/hellenicObservatory/pdf/GreeSE/GreeSE02.pdf

Applying the EU Law: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/overview-law-making-process/applying-eu-law\_en

Infringement procedure: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/overview-law-making-process/applying-eu-law/monitoring-implementation-eu-directives/infringement-procedure\_en

The General Secretariat of the Greek Government: http://www.ggk.gov.gr/?page\_id=334

The greek constitution: http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/en/Vouli-ton-Ellinon/To-Politevma/Syntagma/

1. ↑ *Official Journal C 326 , 26/10/2012 P. 0001 - 0390*
2. ↑ LSE. 2019. Hellenic Observatory . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/Hellenic-Observatory. [Accessed 30 April 2019].