A new study by the Greek think tank KEFIM brings to light significant shortcomings in Greece’s lawmaking practices compared with those of the European Union, even as it notes a few areas of progress. The report, titled “The Quality of Lawmaking in Greece and the EU,” examined 190 Greek laws and 61 EU directives adopted between 2022 and 2024.
The study’s most striking finding is the sheer length of Greek legislation, which makes laws harder to navigate and more cumbersome in practice. The average Greek law runs to 54 articles and about 60 pages—more than double the length of the typical EU directive, which averages 25 pages. Greece also performs poorly when it comes to public consultation: although more draft bills formally enter the consultation process, citizens and stakeholders have only 16 days on average to submit comments.
A further weakness is the absence of quantitative impact assessments. Only 10 percent of the explanatory reports that accompany Greek laws include numerical data on the expected consequences of the proposed measures.
In contrast, 65 percent of EU directives provide such data. According to the researchers, this lack of quantification undermines evidence-based policymaking and makes it difficult to assess the actual effects of new legislation once implemented.
Despite these challenges, the study does identify several positive aspects of the Greek system. The language used in Greek laws is generally clearer and less complex, with an average sentence length of 24 words compared with 36 in EU directives. Greece also demonstrates greater formal consistency in preparing impact assessment reports: 77 percent of Greek laws are accompanied by such analyses, compared with 62 percent at the European level.
To address the existing gaps, the study calls for a broad set of reforms. It recommends shortening draft bills and ensuring that each law focuses on a single subject, extending public consultations to at least four weeks, requiring that impact assessments include quantitative data, and upgrading the assessment framework to cover economic, environmental, and administrative indicators.
Konstantinos Saravakos, the report’s author, emphasizes that the underlying problems remain persistent. “Despite institutional progress over the past decade, Greece still falls short on the substance of good lawmaking,” he warns. “Consultations remain among the shortest in the EU, and quantitative estimates in impact reports are often absent. To improve the quality of regulation—the operating system of our society—we need shorter and more comprehensible laws, meaningful consultation, and systematic presentation of the expected quantitative impacts.”
