The initial results of the implementation of new judicial map<\/b>, which has improved the efficiency of the justice system and the issuance of rulings by 50%, Akis Skertsos<\/b>. <\/p>\n
The Minister of State, Akis Skertsos<\/b>, emphasized that the new judicial map constitutes \u201can exemplary reform that has broken the decades-long \u2018stagnation\u2019 of the Greek justice system and has already reduced the time it takes to issue first-instance rulings by 50%<\/b>\u201d. <\/p>\n Akis Skertsos\u2019s post in full <\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice delayed is justice denied\u201d <\/p>\n
New judicial roadmap: an exemplary reform that has broken the decades-long \u201cstagnation\u201d of the Greek justice system and has already reduced the time it takes to issue first-instance rulings by 50%. <\/p>\n
In Greece, we have come to associate the term \u201creform\u201d with something painful and unpleasant that inevitably leads to social and political tension, protests, strikes, and endless squabbles inside and outside Parliament, on TV talk shows, and in lecture halls. <\/p>\n
And yet, there is one of the many reforms of recent years\u2014perhaps one of the three or four most important, to be precise\u2014that was implemented literally \u201cwithout raising a fuss.\u201d <\/p>\n
I am referring to the new judicial map, which had been incorporated as a flagship reform\u2014a hallmark of Greece\u2014as early as 2021 into the Recovery and Resilience Fund \u201cGreece 2.0,\u201d and which was passed and has been in effect since 2024. <\/p>\n
And it didn\u2019t raise a fuss, even though the scope and depth of this reform are of historic proportions. In particular, if one considers that it concerned courts of first instance and magistrates\u2019 courts throughout the country, with all the local particularities that a government attempting to merge and streamline structures must manage. But also that similar efforts began as far back as the time of Eleftherios Venizelos, without ever having been successfully implemented by 2024. <\/p>\n
All of this was brought to mind by last week\u2019s visit to the Ministry of and the presentation given to us by a select team from the World Bank, which served as the government\u2019s technical advisor on this major reform from 2022 to 2025. <\/p>\n
The words we heard from World Bank officials were both moving and encouraging. <\/p>\n
The new Greek judicial map is now regarded by the World Bank itself as a landmark reform on the international stage, an example of international best practice, both for the results it has already yielded within its first 1.5 years of implementation and for the technical groundwork and political management that took place before, during, and after its passage. <\/p>\n
A key element of the entire effort was data analysis. I will never tire of saying it: what is not measured cannot be evaluated. Andwhat is measured objectively and responsibly cannot be politically contested when examining different reform scenarios aimed at improving performance in every sphere of public life. <\/p>\n
It is useful to recall some key elements of this reform here: <\/p>\n
– Corresponding reforms in Portugal, Denmark, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Croatia were studied, <\/p>\n
– A total of 154 magistrates\u2019 courts and 63 courts of first instance\u2014217 judicial units in all\u2014were consolidated into 113 courts of first instance. <\/p>\n
– Justices of the peace and first-instance judges were merged into a single body of first-instance judges, which now totals more than 2,000 judges, creating a sufficiently large pool of judges to ensure a fairer distribution of cases and their faster processing. <\/p>\n
– The fundamental guiding principle of this reform was to restore the rule of law first and foremost within the judiciary itself. As determined by an assessment of the caseload and productivity of each court, there were courts throughout Greece with an excessive caseload on an annual basis and, conversely, courts with a minimal caseload. In other words, some judges were working very hard, while others were doing very little. <\/p>\n
It was also found that although we have nearly twice as many judges as the European average, the time required to issue a final judgment was twice as long as in the rest of Europe. <\/p>\n
After exhaustively compiling all quantitative and qualitative data on the operation of each court (number of staff, building infrastructure, productivity in terms of incoming and outgoing cases, population density in the relevant regional unit, etc.), this data was analyzed by experts from the World Bank, court leadership, and officials from the Ministry of and presented to judicial officials as well as local authorities and representatives from each region. <\/p>\n
The reform scenarios were discussed in depth in every local community with all professional organizations. After weighing the pros and cons, they arrived at the optimal solutions. No \u201cimported formula\u201d was adopted. Instead, building on international experience, national institutional traditions were taken into account, and scenarios were designed that could ultimately be implemented with as little friction as possible. It should be noted, of course, that the sole exception to this atmosphere of consensus was the opposition, which otherwise expresses concern for the rule of law in Greece, which requested a roll-call vote during the parliamentary debate and, of course, voted against the bill. <\/p>\n
In Greece, we tend to judge a reform by the commotion it causes rather than by the results it brings. The judicial map, however, is yet another quiet reform of recent years that has already yielded significant results, along with the other reforms being implemented simultaneously in the justice system (new procedural rules aimed at expediting proceedings, widespread digitization, renovation of court buildings, delegation of case files to attorneys and notaries, etc.). <\/p>\n
The World Bank\u2019s contribution to the design and implementation of this reform, given its extensive international experience in reforming judicial systems around the world, was catalytic. Without the specialized knowledge and comparative analysis that the World Bank brought to the table, this reform would not have been possible. <\/p>\n
And that in itself is an answer to the political \u201cnoise\u201d generated by the opposition regarding the role of technical advisors in many key projects and reforms implemented in Greece in recent years. Technical consulting support should not consist of flashy PowerPoint presentations or verbose studies that are paid for at great expense only to end up forgotten in a drawer. <\/p>\n
Serious technical support is an indispensable prerequisite for the implementation of any serious reform program. It is, after all, a condition for eligibility for funding from European financial instruments, which recognize the importance of external technical assistance for any complex reform or investment project. <\/p>\n
Finally, this reform would not have been possible without three additional factors: <\/p>\n
– the political stability we have achieved over the past 7 years on the basis of an ambitious government reform program. <\/p>\n
– the funding we secured through the Recovery Fund. <\/p>\n
– the political leadership of the Ministry of Justice, both during the government\u2019s first term, under Kostas Tsiaras<\/b>, who was responsible for the initial conception of the reform, as well as during his second term, under Giorgos Floridis<\/b> and Ioannis Bougas<\/b>, who shouldered the bulk of the work involved in designing, passing, and implementing the new judicial map. <\/p>\n
I am recording all of this for one more reason: in Greece, we have grown accustomed to saying, \u201cThese things can\u2019t be done.\u201d And yet they can! All we need to do is believe in our own strengths, as well as in the added value created by combining technocratic knowledge with political experience and management. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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