President replies to Parliament president, declines her request to brief counterparts

Gazzetta team 22 Ιουλίου 2015 - 22:26

President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Wednesday replied to a letter sent to him by Parliament President Zoi Konstantopoulou, declining her request to inform his counterparts that proper Constitutional procedures had not been followed in the case of the two draft bills on prior actions tabled for approval in Parliament.

Pavlopoulos explained that the Constitution did not allow him to inform his counterparts about the claims made in her letter, as she requested.

"First, the letter expresses your personal opinions, since there has been no decision of the Parliament in this direction. There is no article in the Constitution, nor in international and European practice, that allows me to inform my Counterparts to this effect, especially when you have the right, which as an esteemed jurist you know, to correspond with them directly.

"Secondly, even if it was a decision of the Parliament, the president of the Republic would again, under the Constitution and international and European practice, have no authority nor therefore the means to convey such to his Counterparts. Given that in this case also, the Hellenic Parliament is in no way prevented from addressing them directly."