Improvement of the Open Deliberation Procedure (GR0036)

Context The electronic platform for the network annotation of suggested acts (www.opengov.gr) initiated at October 2009 aiming at the publication and the annotation of any plan of body of laws (in separate space that was created for every ministry in http://www.opengov.gr) prior to their submission in the parliament. Civilians and organizations are lodging annotations, proposals and views, article to article, in order all these to be gathered and be estimated by the public bodies that are being responsible for the each time law deliberation. This effort has been outstripped with the legislative enactment of basic terms for the public deliberations by the law 4048 (gps 34/23-02-2012). More specifically, in the 6th article of this law, are determined the means by the expression “The deliberation is obtained by the publication, with the use of appropriate means, of the planned regulation, aiming at the timely information and the participation of the civilians, social bodies and everybody concerned” and by the phrase “The deliberation of any draft of law is becoming also through the web site http://www.opengov.gr”. Still, it is appointed that “The obliged for the deliberation procedure actuation is the minister with the initiative act”. In addition, as the law dictates, the deliberation is conducted in two phases that may take place simultaneously. 1. The first phase of the deliberation lasts two weeks at least. The deliberation’s object is the information and the allowance for annotation potentiality with regard to the objective and the pursued result of the planned regulation, the alternative choices, the cost, the benefits and the risks that may appear due to the deliberation itself. 2. The second phase lasts three weeks at least. During the second phase of the deliberation, a draft of the bill terms is posted at the web site and the potentiality of an article to article annotation is allowed. In case that a draft of terms is existed, the first phase is omitted with the initiative of the due minister and the second phase is getting prolonged to one more week. 3. The deliberation may be interrupted or abbreviated or time prolonged, with the initiative of the due minister for adequately documented reasons, which are mentioned at the report for the public deliberation that accompanies the regulation. 4. The Bureau of Legislative Initiation, of the due Ministry, compose a report for the public deliberation, in which the comments and suggestions by the civilians took part at the deliberation, are presented in groups and their incorporation or non - incorporation is documented at the final terms. The report accompanies the regulation during its reposition at the Parliament, is posted at the web site that the deliberation took place and is sent by email to the accounts that the comments came from. The above that law dictates, are deemed as sufficient in legislation regard, in relation to the draft of the law. Still, there is a need for legislative intervention within the frame of a public deliberation provision and other documents of public interest such as draft supplies proclamations, decisions and technical specs. According the above and taking into consideration the noticed glitch: There is no adequate information of the stakeholders with regard to the law, There is no adequate information with regard to the duration obligation, There is no flexibility for a ministry, to hook up directly a deliberation, The participants have no trust in the consideration(or not) of their comments It must legislatively be anticipated that there will be potentiality for deliberations and other normative acts, draft contracts, According the above, are suggested: The conduct of training seminars for the information of the stakeholders in regard to the law 4048 (gps 34/23-02-2012), The conduct of hands-on-training seminars for the stakeholder ministries officers, in terms of the use of the relative platform, to gain the ability to hook up draft of laws on behalf of the ministries, as well as the editing of relative accompany reports and documents. In order the function of the open deliberation to be more effective and its role not to be impoverished in the mind of people and in the legislative procedure, this is why a strong demand is the improvement of its characteristics. Commitment Description Enhancement of the bill deliberation procedure in all levels (institutional, legal, operational, technical). The Enhancement of the deliberation procedure between other things will include improvements at the following sectors: Stipulated consolidation of the methodology and of the obligation for rational response, in bounded time limits. For these two stages there will be for the 1st one, specialization and criteria institution and method for the procedure with bounded time frame and for the 2nd one there will be documented response for the incorporation (or not) of the citizens’ comments into the bill’s text with boundary time frame and enact of methodology. Institutional: Enhancement of the existing institutional framework with information and training of the stakeholders. The officers of the ministries to be trained so as these stakeholders to hook up the deliberations of the ministries Technical: The electronic platform http://www.opengov.gr must comprise the central point of information and conduct of deliberations for the whole spectrum of the public sector. Also the mechanisms for the deliberations diffusion must be reinforced. Operational: o Entry of new methodology deliberation code that will stand for all public bodies. o Appointment of good practices. Deliberation analysis for those of great deal of participation. o Identification of deliberations and submitted bills. There must be connection between the deliberation that was realized and the final bill (there will also be included array of results with suggestions derived from the public deliberation and were taken into consideration). Adoption of the same deliberation codes and of article codes of voted bills for the direct correlation. o Improvement of the pattern for the deliberation report. o Development and comments response with a particular methodology and rational reply for every comment, for its accession or not in the bill and in specific time. o Development of toolkit for the estimation of the public deliberation on the ground of documented criteria by the side of the expedited ministry. o A semester evaluation of the deliberations o Training and development of the officers Adoption of mechanisms for the approach and mobilization of the civilians. At this procedure will be pursued the engagement of bodies by the society of the citizens. o Structured communication with all the groups of interest. Gradual deliberations accession in regional and domestic level (municipalities) in matters concerning the everyday life of the citizen. OGP Values Participation of the civilians, accountability, technology and innovation for transparency Implementation Bodies Implementation: Ministry of Interior& Administrative Reconstruction – Sector of Administrative Reform & E-Government – for the regulatory framework / National School of Public Administration and Local Government-for the technical and operational part. Alternate Minister of Interior& Administrative Reconstruction– due to reform issues, President of the National School of Public Administration And Local Government Objectives For the complete function of the Open Deliberation it stands as necessity the enactment of specific methodology and the specific consolidation of time boundaries of the pre-legislative and the deliberation for the bill. In this way the Open Deliberation will be able to more effective, implementing more complete its purpose. The Enhancement of the democratic institutions in the consciousness of the citizens and the openness of the state during the legislative procedure induces total improvement at the consolidation of the constitutional rights. The politics for Openness are served if the institutional tools function effectively and the more complete function of the Open Deliberation helps to the diffusion of the Openness. Means for the implementation The regulatory regulations for the achievement of the commitment will be contributed by the Ministry of Interior& Administrative Reform, the Ministry of Interior& Administrative Reform – Sector of Administrative Reform & E-Government and the technics and operational regulations by the National School of Public Administration and Local Government.

Commitment 1 and 6: Regulatory Reform

Commitment 1. Framework law on Open & Participative Governance  

Commitment Text:

Drafting and submission of a bill to Parliament for an Open and Participative Governance in view of a comprehensive regulation of the relevant issues and the promotion of the respective policies.

Responsible Institution(s): Ministry of the Interior and Administrative Reform- division of Administrative Reconstruction & e-Government, Alternate Minister for Reform, Deputy Secretary General

Supporting Institution(s): None

Start Date:  July 2016 End Date: March 2018

Commitment 6. Improving of the Open Deliberation procedure

Enhancement of the bill deliberation procedure in all levels (institutional, legal, operational, technical).

Responsible Institution(s): Ministry of Interior & Administrative Reform – Sector of Administrative Reform & E-Government – for the regulatory framework; National School of Public Administration and Local Government.

Start Date:  July 2016 End Date: December 2017

Editorial Note: Commitment text has been abridged by the IRM. To see the full action plan, please refer to https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-national-action-plan-2016-2018/

Commitment Aim:

1. Framework law on Open & Participative Governance

This commitment aimed to address a recurring theme regarding the coordination of open government policies in Greece by putting forward a binding legal mandate. At the time this commitment was adopted, the government relied on a small team within the Ministry of Administrative Reform that in most cases reported directly to the Minister.^{[Note 14: Nancy Routzouni, national point of contact, IRM researcher interview, 7 August 2017.]} The government sought to improve the ownership of the action plan formulation and implementation by creating a new law that would encompass OGP commitment proposals by different government departments and civil society. The government also aimed to cover the day-to-day management of OGP processes, commitment implementation overview and production of self-assessment reports.^{[Note 15: Ibid.]} A permanent multi-stakeholder forum that would facilitate a regular dialogue process and submission of comments and opinions was also considered a priority to be included in the legal text.^{[Note 16: Despina Mitropoulou, General Director of Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS), telephone interview with IRM researcher, 5 May 2017.]}

The law would cover:

• Open meeting rules at the subnational level;
• Establishment of advisory, multi-stakeholder working groups at each agency;
• Establishment of an inter-ministerial working group on governance; and
• Digital transparency on personnel and administrative actions.

6. Improving of the Open Deliberation Procedure

This commitment aimed to improve the legal, technical and operational aspects for online consultations between ministries and citizens on draft bills. It would try to achieve this by amending the relevant legal framework on good legislative practices.^{[Note 17: “Improving the production rules of the legislative work and, consequently, the quality of the legislation produced”, Law 4048/2012 (in Greek), http://www.minadmin.gov.gr/?p=1803 ]} At the time of the adoption of this commitment, although the existing legal framework promoted transparency and public consultation via certain processes (e.g. providing for specific stages and timeframes), it did not set specific means to address deviations from the procedure itself.

This commitment would provide guidance on how deliberation stakeholders are defined; training of government officers involved in the deliberation process; and guidelines on how public consultations should be conducted, including outlining standards for a “reasoned response” to public inputs during policy making.

Status

Commitment 1. Framework law on Open & Participative Governance

Midterm: Limited

According to the action plan timeline the law should have been passed in March 2017. By the end of the mid-term assessment period, the law preparation committee had been created and had held two discussions on the content of the law. During the midterm assessment the government had not yet presented the new law in parliament for voting and thus the commitment was behind schedule. According to the Ministry of Administrative Reconstruction (MAR) OGP team,^{[Note 18: Nancy Routzouni, national point of contact, response to IRM researcher questionnaire, 26 September 2018.]} there was insufficient inter-ministerial coordination to finalize the draft. Some ministries could not identify how to introduce the collaborative model into their operations. The MAR shared a first version of the drafted law document with the IRM researchers. However, the online public consultation and the parliamentary discussion on the draft law were still pending. For more information, please see the 2016-2018 midterm report on the Greek action plan. ^{[Note 19: OGP, “Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Report 2016–2018: Greece”, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-mid-term-report-2016-2018-public-comment]}

End of term: Limited

Based on the IRM researchers’ monitoring of the parliamentary website section on new legislation^{[Note 20: Hellenic Parliament – Submitted Draft Bills website (in Greek), https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/Nomothetiko-Ergo/Katatethenta-Nomosxedia]} no draft legal act for open government was introduced. Additionally, no draft text has been made available on the online consultations website.^{[Note 21: Open Government Consultations website (in Greek),}

 http://www.opengov.gr/home/category/consultations] According to IRM interviews carried out in June 2018 with the General Director of MAR^{[Note 22: Nikos Michalopoulos, General Secretary for Open Government, Ministry of Administrative Reconstruction, IRM researcher interview, 23 June 2018.]}, the framework law has ceased being a priority for the Ministry due to limited human resources.^{[Note 23:  Ibid.]} Some of the work completed by the inter-ministerial team on the preparation of a legal text on open government is available online after the IRM researchers requested this.^{[Note 24: Greek government deliberation website (in Greek),}

 http://www.opengov.gr/home/category/consultationsd IRM researchers were observing the workings of the law drafting committee] According to the national point of contact for OGP, the update of the decision on the design and drafting of legislation for the promotion of Open and Participatory Governance policies is still pending because most of the involved ministries have not yet formed the required internal open government working groups.^{[Note 25: Nancy Routzouni, national point of contact, response to IRM researcher questionnaire, September 2018.]} For these reasons the IRM researchers consider that although some progress had been made by the end-of-term period, the completion level remained limited.

Commitment 6. Improving of the Open Deliberation Procedure

Midterm: Limited

During the midterm evaluation there was no indication that the government would put forward a plan to revise the legal framework concerning public participation in drafting laws (Law 4048/2012). The National Center for Public Administration continued to provide technical support, user training and operational coordination to public employees from all ministries involved in online public consultations.^{[Note 26: Dimitris Tsimaras, National Center for Public Administration, interview with IRM researcher, Athens, September 2017.]} For more information, please see the 2016-2018 midterm IRM report on the Greek action plan.^{[Note 27: OGP, “Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Report 2016–2018: Greece”, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-mid-term-report-2016-2018-public-comment]}

End of term: Limited

The National Center for Public Administration continues to use the pre-existing deliberation methodology. Open deliberation on draft laws takes place regularly in the opengov.gr platform. The IRM researchers reviewed recent deliberations and observed that a new mechanism to report the consultation results to participants is not yet available.^{[Note 28: Opengov.gr consultation platform, examples of recent consultations can be viewed (in Greek),}

: http://www.opengov.gr/yyka/?p=2749 and http://www.opengov.gr/minenv/?p=9523] Transparency International Greece also indicated the lack of an online feature that provides feedback to participants regarding the consultation results.^{[Note 29: Dr. D. Rigopoulos, Associate at Transparency International Greece, interview with IRM researcher, Athens, 21 November 2017.]} There is no evidence on the parliamentary legislation website^{[Note 30: Hellenic Parliament – Submitted Draft Bills (in Greek),}

 https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/Nomothetiko-Ergo/Katatethenta-Nomosxedia] that MAR has moved forward with its plans to amend the regulatory framework needed to improve the process. Since there is no further government action planned to improve the open deliberation procedure the implementation of this commitment remained limited.   

Did It Open Government?

Commitment 1. Framework law on Open & Participative Governance

Access to Information: Did Not Change

Civic Participation: Did Not Change

Since the implementation of this commitment was limited and there was no change in the legal framework, it has not resulted in any changes in government practice on access to information and citizen participation.

Commitment 6. Improving of the Open Deliberation Procedure

Civic Participation: Did Not Change

Since the implementation of this commitment was limited and there was no change —neither in the legal framework nor in the consultation guidelines— it has not resulted in any change of government practice on civic participation.

Carried Forward?

MAR representatives^{[Note 31: Ibid.]} indicated that these commitments will not be carried forward into the next action plan. Although MAR representatives and the national point of contact had indicated to IRM researchers that a new action plan would be developed^{[Note 32: Ibid.]}, the Greek government had not released a concrete timeline at the time of writing this report. The IRM researchers recommend the government to publish the draft work carried out on the framework law on open government, to specify the necessary legal amendments and assign a timeframe for online, in person and parliamentary consultation.^{[Note 33: OGP, “Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Report 2016–2018: Greece”, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-mid-term-report-2016-2018-public-comment}

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