NEWS

New Democracy proposals

The government is to enter the parliamentary debate, scheduled to begin officially in mid-April, with a tightly restricted agenda. According to government sources, the draft proposal to be submitted by the prime minister’s office refers only to articles covering just four sectors: education, the environment, the management of funds granted to politicians and the rules governing conflict of interest for civil servants and parliamentary deputies. A clash with the main opposition is expected over a proposal which, the same sources say, ND will be tabling with regard to changing the Supreme Special Court into a Constitutional Court. Lively debate is also expected (even within ND) over a plan to partially lift restrictions on parliamentary deputies from carrying out business activity, a move which ND had supported in 2001. On the other hand, despite much heated debate over the issue in the past, the government is not intending to raise the issue of changing controversial Article 14, Paragraph 9 on media owners concluding business contracts with the state, nor the provision linking the election of the president with the possibility of early elections, as leading ND cadres have persistently called for. Proposals Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos has been working closely with Cabinet Secretary Argyris Karras on the draft, which is to form the basis for debate within ND’s parliamentary group (one or two sessions have already been scheduled) as well as by the party’s Public Administration group. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is also scheduling private meetings with extra-parliamentary experts in relevant fields of expertise. According to all indications, the government is expected to propose the following: A change to Article 16 regarding the exclusively public character of tertiary education. The government is to propose the founding of private, non-profit universities; this was one of ND’s election campaign commitments. A change to Article 24 on forests. It will propose a change to the way forests are classified (such as with the use of aerial photographs and modern maps) and connecting them to the national zoning plan. «We need to properly determine what we mean by a national zoning plan,» said government sources, who pointed out that to date the Council of State, the country’s highest court, has virtually been doing the state’s job in this area precisely because such a plan does not exist. The same sources believe changing this article is a pre-requisite for drafting a land register and forest register. – Tighter restrictions in the way funds to political parties, parliamentary candidates and deputies are allocated and monitored. According to sources, the government wants to limit the amount of funds going to political parties from the private sector, abolish parties’ «purchase of television time,» and to define guarantees for a more effective control of parties’ and candidates’ finances, among other things. This includes a proposal on turning the Supreme Special Court into a Constitutional Court which will also monitor parties’ and candidates’ finances as well as deputies’ source-of-income statements. Government officials refer to the absurdity of allowing Parliament to monitor its own deputies’ finances and argue in favor of upgrading existing control mechanisms. – Changes to articles defining conflict of interest between the posts of parliamentary deputy and civil servant and between the deputy and private business interests. Regarding the former, the government wants to make the current rules much stricter. Regarding the latter, which most leading ND cadres support, the government intends to partially lift the restrictions, in combination with stricter conditions for deputies wanting to engage in a parallel career. Ioannis Varvitsiotis is violently opposed to the move and has already suggested that government ministers should not be parliamentary deputies. For the time being, Pavlopoulos’s view that Article 14, Paragraph 9 on media owners should not be changed appears to be prevailing. He has argued that there is no reason to abolish it since, following months of dispute, common ground has been found with the European Union on the issue. Nor does the government agree with proposals to separate the election of a president from the possibility of early elections, as Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis has suggested, and to change the way deputies are elected by introducing a mixed system of both a list of candidates and providing a choice of candidates, as suggested by Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias. Finally, the prime minister’s office has not discussed the possiblility of suggesting the separation of Church and state.

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