Overview and context

Greece has a unicameral legislature consisting of 300 Members of Parliament (MPs) and State Deputies elected for four-year terms. The last election occurred in September 2015 and the next is expected for 2019. MPs are elected through a system of ‘reinforced proportional representation’ across 56 constituencies. Of the 300 seats, 250 are elected by the constituencies and the party receiving the most votes is ‘reinforced’ with an additional 50 seats. State Deputies have the same parliamentary roles as MPs and sit in the same chamber, but are elected depending on party popularity within each state-province. The number of State Deputies is not fixed (but shall not exceed 20; there are currently 12). The Parliament also elects the President of the Republic on a five-year term with a two-thirds majority required. If this cannot be achieved the Parliament is dissolved.

Government ministers may introduce Law Proposals and MPs may introduce Draft Laws as bills. If a Draft Law or Law Proposal incurs additional expenses for the State Budget it must be accompanied by a General Accounting Office’s report specifying the amount of expenditure involved. Bills must also be submitted with an Impact Assessment Report as well as a report outlining the findings of a public consultation on the proposed Bill. Once passed through a two-stage process in the Parliament, the Draft Law or Law Proposal has to be promulgated by the President of the Republic within one month and published in the Official Gazette of the Hellenic Republic.