Parliamentary Committees (Greece)

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The Parliament of Greece naturally assumes legislative responsibilities within the framework of the state, a key part of this parliamentary process (in any liberal democracy) is the establishment and running of Parliamentary committees on all manner of state decisions. There are several different types of Parliamentary committee within the Greek system.

Hellenic Parliament Legislative body of the Greek Republic

The Hellenic Parliament is the parliament of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The Parliament is the supreme democratic institution that represents the citizens through an elected body of Members of Parliament (MPs).

Liberal democracy form of government

Liberal democracy is a liberal political ideology and a form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of classical liberalism. Also called Western democracy, it is characterised by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, a market economy with private property and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either formally written or uncodified, to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract. After a period of sustained expansion throughout the 20th century, liberal democracy became the predominant political system in the world.

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Standing committees

Standing committees are the main committees associated with the Greek Parliament. They are instituted and composed at the onset of every Regular Session with the directive of the Speaker of the Parliament, in order to process and examine bill or law proposals. Following the revision of the Constitution and the amendment of the Standing Orders, they are free to exercise both legislative work and parliamentary control. There are 6 standing committees:

The current Constitution of Greece, was created by the Fifth Revisional Parliament of the Hellenes and entered into force in 1975. It has been revised three times since, most significantly in 1986, and also in 2001 and in 2008. The Constitutional history of Greece goes back to the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832), during which the first three revolutionary Greek constitutions were adopted. Syntagma Square in Athens is named after the first constitution adopted in the modern Greek State.

Special committees

These are instituted by the Speaker of the Parliament following a Government proposal for a new bill or law to be passed. They scrutinize and analyse the bill and when they have made a final decision in regard to it their term expires.

Special permanent committees

These are special committees which are instituted at the onset of each new Parliamentary session. Unlike special committees set up to scrutinize a specific law, they do not have a fixed term of existence and are permanent. There are 4 special permanent committees.

The Special Permanent Committee on Institutions and Transparency is one of the four Special permanent committees of the Hellenic Parliament.

Internal Parliamentary committees

They are instituted at the onset of every Regular Session and deal with standing internal issues of the workings of the Parliament and scrutinize the running of parliament. There are 4 Internal Parliamentary committees.

Investigative committees

Investigation committees are instituted for the assessment of general interest special issues (i.e. investigations into things such as major corruption issues that require the attention of Parliament), following the proposal of one fifth of the total number of Parliamentarians (60 Parliamentarians) and the vote of the Plenary Session.

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