The opinion of the Scientific Council regarding the letters sent by ADAE President Mr. Christos Rammos to the Parliament to be heard in the Committee on Institutions and Transparency was requested and received by the Chairman of the Parliament Konstantinos Tassoulas on the question of “whether in accordance with the Constitution, laws or By the Rules of Parliament, special or other committees of Parliament may be convened in this way.” The Scientific Council considered that the letters from the President of ADAE, which were sent to the President of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency and brought to the attention of the President of the Parliament Konstantinos Tassoulas, to be invited to inform “on matters of public interest within the competence of the Authority” considered that, in accordance with Article 69 of the Constitution: “No one appears in Parliament without an invitation to communicate anything orally or in writing. Petitions are submitted by a deputy or delivered to the President.” It should be noted that according to part 7 of Article 11 of the Civil Code, “The Chairman of the Parliament represents the Parliament in court and out of court”.

Especially with regard to the Committee on Institutions and Transparency, “whose subject matter is the parliamentary oversight of independent authorities”, the Scientific Council, after an extensive and detailed reference to the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, indicates that what arises is “that extra-parliamentary persons, with the exception of ministers and deputy ministers who do not have parliamentary status”, “may not speak to parliament on their own initiative at all”. They note that, in accordance with the Constitution, independent authorities submit to the President of Parliament a report on their activities, special reports on issues of their competence or reports on the progress and resolution of issues related to the fulfillment of their mission, and all these “the President of Parliament sends them to the committees of the House” , adding that “on the other hand, as regards the reports of independent bodies, the Speaker of Parliament forwards them to the Standing Committee on Institutions and Transparency, which can express its opinion in writing to the Speaker of Parliament on these reports.”

The Academic Council of the Parliament also notes that “in the reports of independent bodies to the Chairman of Parliament, issues related to the fulfillment of their mission” should be reflected, and any “general report is not enough.” Among other things, the members of the Academic Council add that reports with “an indication of the method (open or closed meeting) of the meeting of the Committee” are not provided for by the Code of Conduct, such as “nor the indication of the notification of the document to members of the Commission”.

The “present” opinion of the Scientific Council of Parliament summarizes that:

1. Letters from the President of ADAE to the President of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency were to be addressed to the Speaker of Parliament. Notifying the Chairman of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency about them is the competence and duty of the Chairman of the Parliament.
2. The second letter from the President of ADAE to the President of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency (dated January 20, 2023) does indeed clarify questions regarding the way the ADAE mission is to be carried out. It appears that the content of paragraph 6 of article 8 of Law 5002/2022 is used as a way to fulfill the mission of ADAE in accordance with the above provision of the Code of Civil Procedure. However, the aforementioned regulation of Law 5002/2022 aims to inform, separately, the President of the Parliament, the leaders of the parties represented in Parliament and the Minister of Justice on the issues of declassification of messages.
3. […] Committees are convened for meetings by their chairman. […] at the request of the government or its members […] when required by a majority or 2/5 of its members. Thus, no one else has the right to ask or specify in general the convening of a meeting of the committee of the House, much less the right to specify the mode of its work (for example, whether its meeting will be public). or secret). In this regard, it is clarified that in the second letter of the President of ADAE, sent by him to the Committee on Institutional Affairs, it is indeed indicated that he does not consider his respective demand binding on the competent bodies of Parliament.
4. To notify members of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency, a document from an independent body must first be sent to the Speaker of Parliament.

Source: RES-IPE