«“At the gates” is the third in the history of the Greek Judiciary, the voluntary exit program for judges from their positions, drawn up by the Ministry of Justice, and will involve an estimated 80 to 100 officials of Themida, who for health reasons cannot respond to the exercise of their duties.
This program seems to lead to a structural change in the human geography of the Judiciary, as the number of approximately 100 judges who will leave must be added to the 35 active judicial officers who were removed in the last two years due to long delays in handling cases and issuing decisions . T
a above will be combined with the consolidation of the first degree of Judiciary jurisdiction, while with the new judicial year the number of serving judges (primary and peace judges) will almost double and reach a total of 2,000.
It is no coincidence that many are now talking about “new generation of judges“, who will shoulder the burden of all upcoming legislative changes, in order to respond to the ever-increasing demands of their operation without compromising the quality characteristics of their decisions at the altar of the speed of administration of justice, which has remained for decades the “Achilles” heel of the judicial system in our country.
The new model of Justice
The changes in the new operating model of the Judiciary, as derived from the sum of the changes in the political leadership of the Ministry of Justice and the decisions taken by the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court, cannot be measured directly, but based on the planning of the government estimates that by the end of the four-year period, the time required to issue a final decision in Greece will have decreased from the current 1,482 days to 637 days, reaching the average of the Council of Europe countries.
Thus, while the “machine” of the Court of First Instance of Athens, the largest court in the country, is working at full capacity under its head Christopher Lino in order for the unification of the first degree of jurisdiction to proceed smoothly from the 17th of next September, the Ministry of Justice is preparing a voluntary exit program for judicial officers of Civil – Criminal and Administrative Justice.
The plan, which is expected to be implemented after the start of the new judicial year – with the most likely time horizon being the end of 2024 – will only concern judges and prosecutors who are facing serious and chronic health problems due to which they cannot follow the rates of administration of Justice and to respond to their duties.
It is worth noting that this will be the third time in the history of the Judiciary that a mass voluntary exit of judges from the Chamber is attempted, with specific criteria that only concern sensitive health data and provide incentives for their actual retirement.
The last time a similar program was set for Justice was in 2008. The final decision has reportedly already been taken by the Minister of Justice George Floridis and the program will be ready for immediate activation after the approval of the relevant funds required by the Ministry of Finance, since it is estimated that judicial officers will be given incentives (financial, pension and recognition of fictitious years of insurance) to leave the judiciary early.
According to reports, this program will concern:
- A limited number of judicial officers, mainly of the second level – that is, of the Court of Appeal – who face recorded health problems and are unable to fulfill their duties intensifying the issue of delays in the administration of justice.
- A strictly defined number that will not exceed 100, with a more likely number closer to 80.
- Initiation of the procedure with the request of the judges both from the Criminal and Civil Justice and from the Administrative Courts. The file will then be forwarded to the Army’s Supreme Health Committee, so that the health problem can be certified with all guarantees, while the members of the Supreme Judicial Council will have the final say, who will decide on the applications of their colleagues.
It is also important that both the judicial associations (the Association of Judges and Prosecutors and the Association of Administrative Judges who recently asked the ministry to include themselves in the program) as well as the political, criminal and administrative courts.
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