ATHENS, July 11, 2025 — The assessment of chronic issues facing Greece in the latest Rule of Law Report on the country, released on Tuesday, 8 July by the European Commission, remains flawed and limited.
Independent organisations, the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), the Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR), HIAS Greece, Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), Reporters United and Vouliwatch, consistently document systemic deficiencies within Greek institutions. We feed into the work of the European Commission through a joint report, tracking a range of horizontal issues that damage the Rule of Law and urging for anxious scrutiny and clear European Commission recommendations to the Greek government for immediate, concrete actions to protect the country’s institutions, transparency and accountability.
The latest report of the European Commission, however, fails yet again to highlight chronic problems and structural deficiencies underlying Greek institutions, and remains strikingly ‘out of touch’ with the reality of the Rule of Law in the country. This calls into question both the effectiveness and willingness to exert actual scrutiny and pressure on the government to make reforms and to comply with basic Rule of Law principles. For yet another year, the report seems to focus on ‘positive developments’, declarations on paper, assurances on future actions or merely on the fact that legislation has changed, while diligently shying away from addressing critical instances of lack of transparency, accountability or compliance with Rule of Law principles, or from substantively commenting on (mostly superficial or piecemeal) legislative changes and on their practical implementation. Selective commentary of specific issues and/or specific time periods gives us particular pause, as the report draws a picture completely detached from the reality we experience, monitor and document. We namely note that the report:
- Refrains for yet another year from assessing the major problem that is the absence of accountability and concerns around the independence of the justice system.
- Makes only passing reference to the Supreme Court Prosecutor decision to shelve the Predatorgate surveillance scandal as far as responsibility of state officials is concerned. Not a single reference is made to the investigation of the Tempi case and to barriers to the investigation of potential ministerial responsibility.
- Fails to draw any connection whatsoever between new, final condemnation judgments handed down by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against Greece, as well as similar UN observations, regarding the failure of the criminal justice system to investigate cases of push backs and violence by law enforcement bodies, and the Commission’s duty to scrutinise the independence, effectiveness and quality of the Greek judicial system. No reference is made in the report to systematic non-compliance on the part of the Greek state with interim measure decisions of the ECtHR in push back cases.
- Refrains from tackling critical issues regarding asset declarations, political party financing or the overall workings of the Investigation Committee, not least the fact that the latest published asset declarations date back to 2021, or gaps in the data that should be available by law on the Investigation Committee website or on political parties’ websites. The report merely cites the adoption of new legal provisions on such matters without even a succinct comment on concerns surrounding the contents of legislation or its (non-)implementation in practice.
These failings are corroborated by the absence of any explanation from the European Commission behind the steady decline of the public and businesses’ already low trust in the Greek institutions, conceded by the report.
The new European Commission report is equally riddled with problems across its few positive elements:
- (a) It reiterates constant obstacles faced by Civil Society in Greece, as continuously highlighted by international bodies. We note, however, that the report yet again fails to evaluate the legality of Ministry of Migration and Asylum rules on registration of organisations and professionals in the area of asylum and migration, in force since 2020.
- (b) It makes a positive assessment of the prosecution of Coast Guard officials in the deadly Pylos shipwreck case and cites it as a starting point for addressing deficiencies in the investigation of incidents involving law enforcement bodies, while neglecting hundreds of shelved related complaints.
- (c) It acknowledges the need for further measures and/or changes in lobbying rules, all the while deeming that effective application and enforcement of those rules have improved. This conclusion is neither accurate nor substantiated. The report itself concedes that entries on the Transparency Register are extremely limited. We also stress that only a handful of meetings have been declared, while contradictions persist between “declared meetings” by lobbyists, on the one hand, and by institutions on the other.
- (d) It notes concerns by interested parties as to the insufficient implementation of the right of access to documents without taking a position thereon. The report merely refers to an amendment and “significant improvement” of the legal framework. Yet, despite our related observations on the matter, it seems to disregard the fact that multiple issues persist around the sufficiency, adequacy and of course implementation of said framework even after the amendment of Article 5 of the Administrative Procedure Code.
We will continue to strengthen the defense of the Rule of Law, to document and to state the shortcomings of Greece’s reality through evidence drawn from our work, in spite of evidently selective treatment thereof by the responsible institutions.
We find no excuse for disregarding problems when organisations such as ours highlight them systematically, thoroughly and transparently, and when the credibility of our contribution is consistently recognised in the European Commission’s report.
The European Commission is not reinforcing its ‘monitoring’ role. It is delegitimising it and exacerbating feelings of neglect and frustration among active citizens towards institutions and the future of political accountability.
As for us, we carry on, persistent and committed to the mission of Civil Society. Because the emperor still has no clothes, even if so many pretend not to see.
The organisations:
Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)
HIAS Greece
Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)
Reporters United
Vouliwatch
