Press Release
Joint Statement of 293 Civil Society Organizations
Athens, November 24, 2021
The Green Tank is one of the 293 signatory civil society organizations of a Joint Statement that was sent to the Prime Minister, the Government and the Parliament, on the Ministry of Interior bill “Civil Society Organizations, voluntary employment and other provisions” which is expected to be put to a vote in the near future. The mass initiative of the organizations was taken on the occasion of the public consultation of this bill, which ended on 19/11/2021, collecting over 340 comments. The bill seeks to establish a legislative and institutional framework and to regulate the State-Civil Society relations, as well as the field of volunteering. The Statement revolves around a series of issues, such as, but not limited to, the lack of provisions for the creation of a framework of trust and meaningful cooperation between civil society organizations and the State, the unfriendly environment created for the development of smaller or newly established organizations, and the enhanced bureaucracy resulting from the bill.
The Joint Statement is available (in Greek) here.
The bill is available here.
In addition to co-signing the joint statement, the Green Tank also submitted comments to the public consultation, which are accompanied by specific recommendations. Due to a technical problem, it was not possible to complete the submission on all articles on the online platform opengov.gr. Overall,the comments concern the:
- recognition of the contribution and the role of the Civil Society Organizations in the society and the economy of the country
- inclusion of all legal forms of organizations
- the conditions of registration in the registry
The Green Tank’s detailed comments and recommendations are available (in Greek) here.
