On 19 December 2022 the online public consultation on Greece’s 5th Open Government Partnership National Action Plan was completed. The Green Tank submitted comments and suggestions that put open and participatory governance among the priorities of the Plan, as well as the Digital Transformation White Paper 2020-2025.
As stated in the Plan’s description, the global Open Government Partnership (OGP) aims to secure government commitments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and use new technologies in contemporary governance.
Although the Plan includes a number of commitments that promote open governance, more actions are needed to facilitate access to information, monitoring of parliamentary work and citizen participation, focusing on upgrading public consultation
We recommend:
- The introduction/re-inclusion in the 5th National Action Plan of the commitment to adopt a framework law on Open and Participatory Governance, in order to strengthen democratic institutions, state accountability, and the citizen participation in decision-making and implementation processes.
- Transform Opengov.gr into a national consultation portal for the entire public administration (national, regional, local level), independent authorities and other bodies, by transferring all public consultations to this platform.
- Obligation to submit an accompanying Regulatory Impact Analysis for all types of regulatory acts submitted to online public consultation via Opengov.gr.
- Obligation to file a Consultation Report for all types of regulatory acts submitted to online public consultation via Opengov.gr.
- Re-establishment of the preliminary consultation stage on the intended objective and effect of the planned regulation, as well as its possible consequences.
- Increase the existing consultation period on the relevant text of the provisions to 4 weeks.
The full text with the recommendations by The Green Tank is available here (in Greek).
