Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis<\/b> met this morning at the Mansion House with Michael McGrath, the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection<\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
During the meeting they discussed issues of countering misinformation, protection of democratic institutions, with emphasis on the protection of the electoral processes of the member states of the EU against outside malicious influences<\/b>, and responsible use of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
The challenges of anonymity on the internet<\/b>, as well as the use of social media by adults<\/b> were also discussed. The Prime Minister briefed Mr McGrath on the Government’s initiative to ban access to social media for children under 15 from January 2027.<\/b><\/p>\n
“I would like to highlight the excellent cooperation we have in the area of the rule of law, and the significant progress you have made in recent years. I believe that, without a doubt, the reforms that have been implemented and the rule of law environment here in Greece have helped you to develop and strengthen the economy. And I think, without a doubt, I think there is now a growing recognition that certainty about the rule of law boosts investor confidence, creates an environment in which businesses invest, grow and create jobs,” Commissioner Michael McGrath said.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted that the government remains fully committed to restoring confidence in our political institutions. <\/b>“As you know, the erosion of trust is a general problem in many of our democracies. It is not just about institutional issues. We need to make sure that we meet the expectations of our citizens and address their concerns, but there are also institutional challenges that we believe we need to address,”<\/p>\n
“We have an<\/b> ambitious reform programme<\/b>. This is an important issue for us in view of the next election. The elections will be held in 2027 and our election campaign will also be based on our proposals for constitutional revision, as we believe that popular legitimacy is required in the sense of bringing these issues to the attention of the electorate in view of the next elections,<\/b> he added.<\/p>\nThe dialogue<\/h3>\n
At the beginning of their meeting, the Prime Minister and the Commissioner had the following dialogue:<\/p>\n
Kyriakos Mitsotakis:<\/b>I am very happy to see you, Commissioner. I understand that you had a constructive discussion with our team. I just want to reiterate that we take the recommendations of the European Commission on the rule of law extremely seriously. I think if you look at the performance over the last few years, you see that we are improving steadily, and we are also on track to respond to the previous recommendations in a very systematic way.<\/b><\/p>\n
And of course, we are also at the forefront of a major, wide-ranging overhaul of our judicial system. For us, the speed of adjudication in the past has not been acceptable, and we are focused on ensuring that justice is administered in an appropriate manner but also within a timeframe that citizens consider fair.<\/p>\n
I would also note that we are embarking on a process to review our constitution. I am sure our team has kept you informed. This is an ambitious process. <\/b>We have a relatively complicated constitutional provision for revising our constitution, which means that two consecutive parliamentary terms are required to approve the proposed changes, at least one of which requires an increased majority, so this is not an easy task.<\/b><\/p>\n
But at the same time, we remain fully committed to restoring confidence in our political institutions. <\/b>As you know, the erosion of trust is a general problem in many of our democracies. It is not just about institutional issues. We need to make sure that we meet the expectations of our citizens and address their concerns, but there are also institutional challenges that we believe we need to address.<\/p>\n
For example, in our case, the way in which the leadership of our Supreme Courts is selected is an issue that we need to look at. <\/b>We have already made a significant change, so we are taking into account the views of the judges themselves, who vote and draw up a list of candidates for the positions of the Supreme Court judges.<\/p>\n
But we believe that this article needs to be reviewed, as does the article relating to the possible prosecution of ministers, where we wish to exclude Parliament, which in the past has been overly politicised when considering these issues, and essentially ensure fair treatment of ministers, with only a “light” parliamentary “filter” in relation to the prosecution of serving or former ministers.<\/p>\n
We have an ambitious reform programme. This is an important issue for us in view of the next elections<\/b>. The elections will be held in 2027 and our election campaign will also be based on our proposals for constitutional reform<\/b>, as we believe that popular legitimacy is required, in the sense of bringing these issues to the attention of the electorate in view of the next elections.<\/p>\n
Thank you again very much for your attendance and I welcome you.<\/p>\n
Michael McGrath:<\/b>Thank you very much, Prime Minister, for that welcome. It is a great pleasure to be here in Athens enjoying this wonderful sunshine today. I did indeed have an excellent meeting with the Minister, Mr Skurchos, and the Deputy Minister, Mr Marinakis. I thank both of you and your staffs, as well as my own staff, including Deputy Head of Delegation Marise (Koutsouradi) and my colleagues from DG Justice, who helped to work so well with all your colleagues in organizing this visit.<\/p>\n
As you know, Mr. Prime Minister, I have a particularly broad portfolio of responsibilities in the Committee, but I believe it is a portfolio of significant impact<\/b>, which has gained greater prominence in recent times, with a focus on democracy and recognition of the challenges and threats to democracy within the European Union. Therefore, Greece’s support to the European Democracy Shield<\/b> initiative and the flagship actions that stem from it has proven to be very important.<\/p>\n
We now have the centre for democratic resilience<\/b>, which is now operational, and we are strengthening cooperation between electoral authorities. In the future we will be issuing guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence in elections, which is an extremely timely issue, and also recommendations on security in politics, because it is important to have an environment for citizen representatives and potential candidates that attracts them to public life, that encourages them to put themselves at the service of citizens and to serve in politics. Your support in this regard is really important.<\/b><\/p>\n
I would like to highlight the excellent cooperation we have in the area of the rule of law and the significant progress you have made in recent years. I believe that, without a doubt, the reforms that have been implemented and the rule of law environment here in Greece have helped you to develop and strengthen the economy. And I believe, without a doubt, that it is now increasingly recognised that certainty about the rule of law boosts investor confidence, creates an environment in which businesses invest, grow and create jobs.<\/p>\n
I believe that this link, which we explicitly provided for in last year’s Rule of Law Report<\/b> in the context of the single market dimension, incorporating it into the annual Rule of Law Report, was an important step. And I think it is important to underline that the Annual Rule of Law Report is not intended to score anyone or rank countries. It is a partnership.<\/p>\n
We in the European Commission<\/b> are working with the support of Member States and in a spirit of sincere partnership to identify areas where improvements may be possible and to share with you and all other Member States the lessons we have learned from our work with all 27 Member States, as well as with a number of candidate countries. So this is a joint effort.<\/p>\n
And as you know, in the context of the next Multiannual Financial Framework, for which we have difficult negotiations ahead of us, our aim is to create a closer link between respect for the rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights<\/b> on the one hand, and access to EU funds on the other. We know that, in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, this is something that you have done very successfully in recent times.<\/p>\n
My portfolio also covers the area of consumer protection. We will be introducing theDigital Fairness Act later this year,<\/b>and your support for that will be important. I imagine it will be an active issue from a legislative point of view during your presidency in the second half of next year.<\/p>\n
It will also focus on better protection for children in the online environment.<\/b> I know you are at the forefront of this, strengthening these protections here in Greece and you have put forward proposals on this. We are now awaiting the results of the recommendations of the task force on child safety online, which has been set up by President von der Leyen. So overall, I would just like to welcome the excellent cooperation between the Commission and your government.<\/p>\n
In the context of this visit, we will focus on justice and on continuing our cooperation on the rule of law. But I want to congratulate you on the progress you have made. We now look forward to the completion of the report so that it can be adopted again next July. Thank you, Prime Minister.”<\/p>\n
The meeting was attended, on the government side, by State Minister Akis Skertos<\/b>, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister and Government Spokesman Pavlos Marinakis<\/b>, the Director of the Prime Minister’s Diplomatic Office, Ambassador Katerina Nasika<\/b> and the Director of the Prime Minister’s International Strategic Planning and Communication Office, Aristotelia Peloni.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The
\nPrime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met this morning at the Mansion Maximou
\nwith the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, Home Affairs, Justice and Home Affairs.
\n…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}