Greece has reduced by 38.5 percent its outstanding cases of coming in line with decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, Deputy Justice Minister Giorgos Kotsiras said in the Parliament on Monday, citing the Court’s annual report. He noted that the ministry “is fully aware and is working toward the timely compliance of the country to the Court’s decisions.”
Kotsiras said that official data shows that on January 1, 2021, the number of non-compliance decisions against Greece totaled 120, against 195 on the same date in 2020, 238 in 2019 and 305 in 2018.
The Legal Council of the State provides a report on progress presented to Europe, he noted.
In comments earlier, SYRIZA MP Giorgos Katrougalos had pointed out that “Greece is among the countries that delay applying the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, and in some cases we are among those countries that do not apply them at all, as the common European Law requires, at the level of political freedoms and individual rights set out by the Strasbourg Court. We are among the five worst countries, unfortunately, in this regard.”
“This contravenes the quality of the state of law in Greece, and must obviously be redressed,” he stressed, as it also incurs significant cost to Greece from tens of millions of euros in fines annually for non-compliance.
