“The draft law of the Ministry of Justice entitled “Consolidation of the first degree of jurisdiction, spatial restructuring of the courts of civil and criminal justice and other regulations of the Ministry of Justice which was put into consultation until April 18, 2024, fully highlights the chronic pathologies of our political system “.
This is what NE Achaias PASOK-KINAL notes in its announcement regarding the new Judicial Charter and continues: “In a press interview, the Deputy Minister of Justice I. Bougas, following enumerating facts and statistics, concluded that the unification of the first degree will also bring regarding the much-desired speed in the administration of justice since the Justices of the Peace will assist the First Instance Judges in adjudicating the cases. Badly spoken words, since through the “Analysis of the Consequences of the Regulation” posted on the consultation page, the World Bank draws the following conclusion: That the magistrates in Greece issue decisions at a slower pace compared to their colleagues of the first instance, if and they only judge political cases with a financial object up to twenty thousand (20,000) euros.
Therefore, the volume of their work and the nature of the cases they judge do not justify the corresponding delay in issuing decisions. In addition, the cost to the state budget of each decision issued by a justice of the peace amounts to an average of seven hundred and sixty (760) euros, while the cost of each decision issued by a first instance judge amounts to only three hundred and eighty (380) euros. This defeats the basic claim of the present design. The problems are primarily structural and not numerical, let’s note the leadership of the Ministry. It’s a pity that the Ministers appear unprepared.
In addition, the abolition of the Regional Courts of First Instance and the concentration of powers in a central Court of First Instance cannot alleviate the already increased constraints and difficulties of a bureaucratic system. How is it possible for a central secretariat to direct 170 Court Clerks throughout Achaia and want them to perform effective work? It goes without saying that the division of labor and the assignment of specialized responsibilities facilitate the smooth functioning of a system. We take it for granted.
Once once more we are presented as a camouflaged success with a bill that aims to hide the inability of the New Democracy government which is heralded as the Staff State, to effectively absorb the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF) funds. According to the EU Justice Scoreboard (2022), the country lags in the use of technology and digital communication tools by courts and prosecutors, in online access to the judicial process by the public and businesses, and in the issuance of machine-readable court decisions, while there are minimal rules for use of technology in the courts. Here there is fertile ground for the development of effective policies for the reform of judicial systems and leave the easy solution of exploiting human resources hiding in long-winded expressions such as “improvement of efficiency”, “more rational use of human resources” and “restructuring of judicial services”. Digitization, technology and infrastructure precede spatial reforms.
As a Government and staff State, you are very indulgently inferior to the circumstances”.
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