Parliament, committees and missing the mark
It is customary to take stock of what has been accomplished when the year ends and a cycle comes to a close. For Greece’s Parliament, in particular, it so happens that we’re not only coming to the end of the year, but also near the end of its four-year term in its present composition.
It is important, however, that the process of taking stock should also include developments that were negative so that we know what needs to be fixed on the way forward, not only because this is the only way to improve how the institution itself functions, but also because it is, albeit in a small way, a step toward restoring some of society’s tarnished trust in the temple of democracy.
There were two developments this year that passed under the radar yet point to a significant problem in how Parliament operates. Both are related to the House’s committees (it has 25 in total), which are tasked with examining critical issues. We refer here to two committees in particular, the one dedicated to the fight against human trafficking and exploitation and the other to safeguarding the rights of people with disabilities.
The committee tasked with discussing how to combat modern-day slavery met for the first time in 2022 on November 15, a full year after its previous session
The committee tasked with discussing how to combat modern-day slavery met for the first time in 2022 on November 15, a full year after its previous session. The evident inertia of this committee is frustrating, to say the least, particularly given that official data show there were 134 recorded cases of human trafficking and exploitation in the first half of 2022, and that 21 of those pertained to children. In the three previous years as a whole, the number of “potential and recognized victims of human trafficking” had come to 154, 167 and 114 respectively.
The second case concerns the committee for people with disabilities, which convened just earlier this month, on December 5. It is estimated that there are around a million citizens with some form of disability living in Greece right now. True to form, the committee stressed that much remains to be done to protect disabled people, and one lawmaker from the opposition noted, among other things, that specific references to what needs to be done should be brought up in the debate on the 2023 budget that was coming up in a few days’ time at the House plenary. Yet, during her speech to lawmakers at the budget debate, the MP made no reference to the subject. Over the course of the five-day discussion on the state budget, the issue of disability benefits and disabled rights was brought up briefly by 18 lawmakers from the New Democracy majority and just nine from the opposition. And of those, just two are part of the 11-member committee on disabled rights.
A new chapter lies ahead of us and it promises to be full of new and old challenges. The choices we make at the polls and the choices our re-elected and freshly elected officials go on to make after that, may, therefore, act as a springboard for improving the quality of our democracy by fixing its mechanisms and weeding out outdated mentalities.
