Parliament: Voridis improvement regulation for the agenda of municipal councils

A legislative improvement on article 44, which regulates agenda items in municipal councils, was brought by the Minister of the Interior, Makis Voridis, during today’s last meeting of the competent parliamentary committee, which elaborated the bill entitled “Supplementary measures for the implementation of the Regulation ( EU) 2019/788 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Citizens’ Initiative and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1799 laying down technical specifications for individual online aggregation systems – Provisions related to the electoral process and control revenues and expenses of parties, coalitions and candidates for parliament and elected officials – Other provisions of the Ministry of the Interior”.

Responding to the criticism that the government does not allow the opposition municipal factions to discuss issues outside the agenda, Mr. Voridis emphasized that, obviously, he is not interested in the silencing of the factions, but the orderly and smooth functioning of the Municipal Councils.

Describing the improved provision, he said that, “48 hours before the City Council president’s invitation to his members to attend the meeting is drawn up, (the improved provision) allows faction leaders to submit a request so that to include an item on the agenda. There, there are two possibilities: Accept the request or not. If it is accepted, then it becomes part of the agenda, and it is discussed normally. If it is not accepted, then there are again two possibilities, which are moved, not to the chairman of the board for a decision, but to the municipal council itself: At the end of the meeting, and after the items on the agenda are finished, then these items can be raised. There, the Board has the option to decide if they want to discuss them anyway or reject the discussion. If they want they can discuss them that day. Then the Board meeting continues and discusses them, and takes a decision, or, if he wants, he can postpone the discussion of these issues to a special, extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors, which, however, cannot be more than 15 days apart”.

Thus, Mr. Voridis concluded, “there is a complete weighing of the rights of the minority and, at the same time, of the proper functioning of the Municipal Council”.

The minority rapporteur D. Kalamatianos expressed the opinion that again, the president of the municipal council will decide on what will be introduced or not in the municipal council. The SYRIZA MP said he would study the new regulation, but noted that “the 15-day period cannot include issues of an urgent nature.”

The intention of her party to request a roll-call vote on Article 44 was expressed by the leader of the Movement for Change, Evangelia Liakoulis: “You are doing small things in the form of improvement.. [..] Essentially, you are saying that this urgent matter, which may have arisen at the same time, on the same day, two or three hours ago, [..] and you tell us with the legal technique that, two days before, the leader of the faction should guess and take this to the Municipal Council..”

KKE leader Manolis Syntyhakis said that the legislation tabled by the government, in essence, does not change anything from the government’s intentions. That is, to silence the voice not of the municipal council and factions, but of the local communities themselves.

The buyer of the Greek Solution, Ant. Mylonakis said that it was his party’s proposal “to give a two-day deadline to the leaders of the factions, to bring the matter to the municipal council, for it to be approved and to pass or not to pass, and to be discussed within a reasonable period of time”.

Also, regarding article 44, the buyer of MeRA25, Maria Apatzidis, said that the purpose of the government is “to silence the opposition voices, so that we go to fast-track procedures, which will be passed to serve some private interests [..] For Mr. Minister, Democracy itself is a delay”.

Commenting on the positions of those who criticized, the Minister of the Interior, Makis Voridis, spoke of a “nihilistic approach [..] You perceive the political Municipal Council, not as a collective administrative body, which has specific powers by law and must perform them, but you perceive it, as a body of political fermentation [..] The Municipal Council is not a Parliament. The Municipal Council is not a body of political fermentation. The Municipal Council is a collective administrative body and has only the powers assigned to it by the legislator. None other.”

Mr. Voridis brought as an example a recent meeting of the Municipal Council of Athens, regarding Eleonas. “This discussion lasted two hours. For one issue, where all the members agreed that the Municipal Council has no competence. In two words, whether they said A or B, no administrative significance. It ended, well, this debate in rejecting a movement proposal, coming from the Left. Two hours ago people started discussing the issues they had. These issues were discussed, issue by issue, in a minute. Because an overworked City Council did not sit down to delves into the matter. I say: Which of the two was the City Council’s business? To debate for two hours a matter over which it had no administrative authority, or to sit and delve and study the matters which are par excellence issues of the Municipal Council? This may not concern you at all and you are asking me some issues of democracy. So, I am telling you that, the nihilistic way in which the left opposition opposes. In fact it is also reflected in the way it stood against these corrections and legal technical improvements, for which I particularly thank the ND Parliamentary Group,” said Mr. Voridis.

SOURCE: APE-ME