Greece

The chapter traces Greece’s traditional focus on conventional notions of administrative accountability through legislative delegation and the involvement of the Council of State as a consultative and judicial body. The pattern of state-society relations in the country has also been described as statist. The EU public consultation mandates were therefore transposed into an institutional environment which, like France, was not particularly hospitable to the idea of open public involvement in policymaking. Nevertheless, the Greek case is distinctive. The chapter assesses the transformative impact of EU law against the specific background of the twin challenge facing Greece: weak administrative capacity and an underdeveloped civil society. The case illustrates that the introduction of participatory processes is a necessary but not always a sufficient condition for the new accountability paradigm to take strong roots. It may, however, helpfully turn the spotlight on structural deficiencies and the need for institutional reform.