The former President of the Republic had a significant presence Katerina Sakellaropoulou At the conference with title “Fifty years since the 1975 Constitution. The constitutional promise of the Transition and the quality of democracy and the rule of law”carried out on the initiative of Cyclewith the support of edition of bagand in cooperation with the DIVISION and Delphi Economic Forum.
In the discussion, co -ordinated by Spyros Flogitis, Om. Professor of the Law School of the EKPA, Director of the European Organization of Public Law, and Fai Makantasis, Director of Research of the Diastos, was attended by Evangelos Venizelos, Om. Professor of Constitutional Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, George Gerapetritis, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Professor of Constitutional Law at the Law School of the NCSR and George Katrougalos, Professor of Public Law at the School of Social, Political and Economics.
In her speech, Ms. Sakellaropoulou, after congratulating the co -organizers on their initiative, said that the 1975 Constitution was, at the time it was voted, one of the most progressive constitutions of its time, with a typical example of Article 24 on the protection of the environment. As he said, this Constitution enabled to support the steady choice of the post -political period, which was the country’s European identity.
He pointed out that the Constitution was interpreted and obtained content by the Greek courts, while through the case -law of both the Courts of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, common constitutional traditions with the Member States, which led to the so -called Constitutional Rights, which led to the so -called. now from international texts and jurisprudence of European courts.
Referring to the issue of the revision, Ms Sakellaropoulou noted that, despite her positive features, the Constitution has often been described as “talkative”, as it contains many arrangements that had a reason for existence when they were established, but over time they became self -evident or became obsolete. Indicatively, he referred to the arrangements related to the registration of various professions, which may well be left to the common legislator, so that there are fewer articles, but they can be observed, reminding the saying of the late Professor Tsakirakis, “the Constitution is there and waiting for us to read it”. The same issue has questioned, inter alia, what prevents the current Constitution from taking into account intergenerational solidarity with the regulation of the insurance issue or to apply Article 24 in conjunction with Article 106 on sustainable development and environmental protection. And he concluded by saying that the problem of the country is not the Constitution, but chronic pathogens, such as structural deficiencies in public administration, the reluctance of the political system to take on political costs and the frequent lack of respect for judicial decisions.
Especially on the issue of justice, since it praised its importance to democratic rule, he pointed out that it must be protected first by its own officials and then by everyone, and treated with respect and not at times praise and sometimes disgusting, depending on whether or not some decisions like it.
Asked about the need to establish a constitutional court, Ms Sakellaropoulou responded that she considers this choice inappropriate and obsolete, which, among other things, will lead, in view of the augmented constitution and the obligation to send a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice to the Court of Justice. The diffuse constitutionality control, he reminded, has been acquired by our legal culture for many years and is not easy to overthrow, and there are no reasons that have led to the establishment of constitutional courts in other European countries. To address the problems of diffuse control, such as observed delays and related insecurity, there are solutions that could be adopted at the legislative level, such as the introduction of a CoE of Constitutional Control system.