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Victoria Mindova

The “I do not pay!” movement is an example of the lack of respect for law enforcement. This was the opinion expressed by Leandros Rakitzis, State Administration Inspector General. He spoke at the forum "Over-regulation-poor legislation-lawlessness: Which is the road to recovery?" Rakitzis stated that the citizens' initiative which initially opposed the payment of tolls for damaged roads grew significantly.  

According to Rakitzis, this confirms two things. On the one hand, there are too many laws and regulations in Greece which are not always correctly applied. On the other hand, the Greeks have no respect for the rule of law and are inclined to easily break the laws with which they disagree. This is just one example that presents the problems resulting from the excessive and long voting of laws that have nothing to do with the country’s reality.

According to Leandros Rakitzis, the paradox of parallel coexistence of over-regulation and lawlessness can be defined only as chaos. He explains the reasons in different aspects. The one is tabooing in the state structure. Creating "idols" for which a cross word can not be said is the system’s fault as the system itself does not allow the principles of democracy to be applied in the modern society. Rakitzis did not specify names, but said that tax breaks for certain social groups that enjoy state protection should be cancelled.

Another obstacle in developing an effective and generally applicable legal system is the interference of political interests in law making. Rakitzis talked about private interests shifting the common ones as well as about the poor quality of Greek laws. "Over-regulation makes obtaining justice difficult. On the other hand, it is the cream of lawyers’ living," said the lawyer with irony.  

The Public Administration Inspector General said that we lived in times when the motto was: "Every man for himself". This makes even more urgent the need to improve the legal framework within which institutions like the police, administration, public and private media and others to work effectively.
 
Poor communication between state institutions and lack of uniform policy to enrich and optimize the legal system are the root of over-regulation problems in Greece. This was the opinion of the lawyer Panagiotis Tsoukas, who also spoke at the forum for improving the regulation of Greece, but much more succinctly than his colleague Leandros Rakitzis.

Tsoukas did not oppose the large volume of laws and regulations a country produces over a certain period of time. On the contrary, he said that regulations were the product of a country’s state system development. But according to him, the question whether the "laws make the public or the public make the laws?" was quite different. He stressed that a poor acting state was evidence of either a poor legal system, or lack of existing laws enforcement. Whatever the reason, the legal system should provide only a general framework of law, then followed a series of regulations, ministerial decrees and others that would specify the application of the law.

Panagiotis Tsoukas said it was time to put order in the legal system and to introduce a rigid hierarchy of who should be liable when the law was not applied. According to the lawyer, this should be the competent minister, rather than incompetent and unrealistic legislative body which, according to Tsoukas, could be comprised of 20-30 half asleep lawmakers who only raised their hands when voting on a bill.