Legal framework

The Central Committee for Legislative Work was established by Legislative Decree 78/1974 (A΄ 267), reporting directly to the Prime Minister. By article 1 of Law No. 255/1976 (FEK A’ 28), the aforementioned Committee was renamed to the Central Law-making – Technical Drafting Committee.

By Article 5 of Decision No. 5257 of 26/26.4.1982 of the Minister of the Presidency of the Government (B` 211), the above Committee was abolished along with all the special committees of a law-making and technical processes and were replaced in their entirety by the Single Law-making and Technical Drafting Committee, which was under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Presidency of the Government.

Article 11 of Law No. 1299 of 13/13.10.1982 (A` 129), renamed that committee to the Central Law-making Committee. During its historical course from 1982 to the present, the committee has undergone changes in its composition, responsibilities and hierarchical authority.

Law 4622/2019 introduced a fundamental reform in the law-making process compared to Law 4048/2012, as it does not merely focus on the establishment of substantive rules but also emphasizes on the necessary procedures aimed at improving the quality of law-making and addressing the structural issues of excessive and poor-quality legislation.

The new legislative framework opts for a synthesis of the centralized and decentralized model of law-making: on the one hand, it allows for more alternative approaches in the preparation of the initial draft, while, on the other hand, it assigns the evaluation of the final draft to a body with a stable composition, the Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law-making Process.
The Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law-making Process, which replaced the Central Law-making Committee, is an independent, advisory body, involving both legal and economic experts, conducting the final evaluation of the bill’s effectiveness.

Responsibilities

The Committee evaluates and advises the Secretary General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs regarding the application and compliance with the principles of better regulation in bills, ministerial amendments, legislative acts, regulatory decrees (prior to their submission to the Council of State), ministerial regulatory decisions and Regulatory Impact Analyses referred to it by the Secretary General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. In particular, in the context of the above assessment, the committee:

(a) examines the constitutionality of the proposed regulations and their compatibility with European Union law and international law and particularly the rules of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), where deemed necessary,

(b) reviews the completeness of the regulatory texts under preparation, particularly regarding to the provisions being repealed or amended, while also examining the accompanying documents,

(c) investigates issues of overlap and conflict between the provisions of the regulatory texts under consideration and the provisions of the existing law,

(d) assesses the quality of the Regulatory Impact Analyses in terms of their quantitative and qualitative dimensions and the realistic presentation of the quantitative or qualitative data included in them.