Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met this morning at Maximos Mansion with the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law, and Consumer Protection Michael McGrath.
During the meeting, they discussed issues related to combating disinformation, the protection of democratic institutions, with an emphasis on safeguarding the electoral processes of EU member states against external malicious influence, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence.
They also discussed the challenges posed by online anonymity, as well as the use of social media by minors. The Prime Minister informed Mr. McGrath of the government’s initiative to ban access to social media for children under the age of 15 starting in January 2027.
At the beginning of their meeting, the Prime Minister and the European Commissioner had the following dialogue:
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Very good to see you, Commissioner. I understand you had a constructive discussion with our team. I just want to repeat that we take the rule of law recommendations of the European Commission extremely seriously. I think if you look at the track record over the past years, we have constantly improved, and I understand that we are also on track to address the previous recommendations in a very systematic manner.
And of course, we’ve also been at the forefront of a significant review of our judicial system across the board. For us, the speed of judicial decisions in the past was not acceptable, and we are laser-focused on ensuring that justice will be served in the appropriate manner, but also within a time framework that people consider fair.
And I would also like to point out that we are initiating a process to amend our constitution. I’m sure our team has briefed you. It’s an ambitious process. We have a relatively complicated constitutional provision for amending our constitution, which means that we require two sequential parliaments to adopt the proposed changes, one of which at least needs a supermajority, so it’s not an easy project.
But at the same time, we remain fully committed to ensuring that we restore trust in our political institutions. As you know, the erosion of trust is a problem across the board in many of our democracies. It’s not only related to institutional matters. We need to make sure that we deliver for our citizens and address their concerns, but there are also institutional challenges which we feel we need to address.
For example, in our case, the way the leadership of our High Courts is selected is a topic that we need to address. We have already made an important change, so we take into consideration the views of the judges themselves who vote and come up with a shortlist of proposals for the top judges.
But we feel that this is an article that needs to be amended, as is the article related to the possible prosecution of ministers, where we want to remove Parliament, which in the past has been incredibly politicised in addressing these issues, and essentially ensure that there is a fair treatment of ministers and only have a light sort of parliamentary filter when it comes to pressing charges against either serving or ex-ministers.
So we have an ambitious reform agenda. This is an important topic for us also going into our next election. We’ll have elections in 2027, and we will be also campaigning based on our proposals regarding the constitutional amendment, because we feel that they also require public legitimacy in terms of raising these issues with the electorate in light of the upcoming election.
So again, thank you so much for being here and welcome.
Michael McGrath: Well, thank you very much, Prime Minister, for the welcome. It’s a great pleasure to be here in Athens and to enjoy the beautiful sunshine today. And I did indeed have an excellent meeting with Minister Skertsos and State Secretary Marinakis. Thank you both and your teams, and thanks to my own team, including the Deputy Head of Representation Maryse (Coutsouradis) and my colleagues from DG Just for helping to liaise so well with all of your colleagues in organising this visit.
As you know, Prime Minister, I have a very broad portfolio within the Commission, but I think it is an impactful one and one that has moved more centre stage in recent times with the focus on democracy and recognising the challenges and the threats that we face to democracy within the European Union. So the support of Greece for the “European Democracy Shield” initiative and the flagship actions that arise from that has been very important.
We now have the Centre for Democratic Resilience up and running, and we are stepping up cooperation between the electoral authorities. We will be bringing forward guidance on the use of AI in elections in the future, a very topical and timely issue, but also recommendation on the safety in politics because it’s important we have an environment for public representatives and for potential candidates that attracts them into public life and makes them willing to offer themselves and to serve in politics. Your support for that is really important.
And can I acknowledge the excellent cooperation that we do have on rule of law, and can I acknowledge the important progress that you have made in recent years. I think without question the reforms that have been introduced and the rule of law environment here in Greece has helped you to develop and grow the economy, and I think without question there is a growing recognition now that having certainty about rule of law creates investor confidence, it creates an environment where businesses will invest and grow and create jobs.
And I think that link, which we explicitly provided for in the Rule of Law Report last year between the single market dimension, incorporating that into the annual Rule of Law Report, I think was a significant step. And I think it’s important that we underline the point that the Rule of Law Report every year is not about marking anybody’s scorecards or ranking countries. It’s a partnership.
We in the European Commission work in support of the member states, and we work in a spirit of genuine partnership to see where improvements might be possible, to share with you and all of the other member states the learnings that we have achieved from our engagement with all 27 member states and indeed with a number of candidate countries as well. So it’s a shared endeavour.
And as you know, in the context of the next MFF, and there will be difficult negotiations ahead, it is our goal to build a closer link between respect for rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights with access to EU funds. And we know in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, this is something that you have done very well in recent times.
My portfolio also extends to consumer protection. We will be bringing forward later this year a Digital Fairness Act, and your support for that will be important. It will be a live legislative file, I imagine, during your presidency in the second half of next year.
It will have a focus on better protecting children in the online environment as well. And I know you’ve been very much to the fore in strengthening those protections here in Greece, and you’ve made proposals in that regard. And we are now awaiting the outcome of the recommendations from the special panel on child safety online that President von der Leyen has established. So overall, just to welcome the excellent working relationship between the Commission and your government.
We will have a focus on justice and continued joint work that we do on rule of law on this particular trip. But I want to commend you on the progress that you have achieved. We look forward now to finalising the report for adoption once again in July of this year. Thank you, Prime Minister.
The meeting was attended, on behalf of the Greek government, by Minister of State Akis Skertsos, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister and Government Spokesman Pavlos Marinakis, the Director of the Prime Minister’s Diplomatic Office, Ambassador Katerina Nasika, and the Director of the Prime Minister’s Office for International Strategic Planning and Communication Aristotelia Peloni.
