Greece 2018

Elections in Greece are regarded as free and fair. Political landscape is pluralistic and diverse, allowing citizens to choose among wide range of political ideas, while political parties are independent and free to compete for votes. Still, everyday politics strongly divides society. Electoral system in Greece is specific, often debated and questioned in regards to accuracy of political representation. Designed in a way to favor the winning political party, “enhanced proportional representation” provides the winner of the elections with 50 bonus seats in the Greek unicameral parliament, itself consisting of the total of 300 MPs, thus facilitating the formation of single-party governments. This issue of voters` misrepresentation reached the national parliament and the

Democratically elected government has effective power to govern the country without interference, thus there are no unconstitutional veto players who are able to undermine democratic procedures in Greece. Corruption among public officials remains country’s unresolved problem. Greek Orthodox Church is not separated from the state, but it cannot directly influence political decisions. However, Greek Orthodoxy is recognized by the constitution as the state religion and enjoys certain influence in shaping public opinion. Its strong position was evident in the disputes over the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Generally, the church pursues its own political agenda, however during recent years it has not been very successful in doing so.

Media outlets and journalists are partly free to operate in Greece. Trend of improving media landscape has moved the country 14 places up on the Reporters without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index, capturing the 74th place. Still many problems in regard to media have not vanished. Although pluralistic and diverse, ownership of media outlets is not transparent, leaving reporting to be subjected to business and political interests. Environment of fear, on one side economic, of losing job, and on the other side of physical and verbal threats they were facing, led some journalists to practice self-censorship. The quality of journalist reporting is low also due to economic crisis. Defamation is a criminal offense. Crisis on issuing licenses for national televisions, after the

In March 2018, Greek courts have for the third time in a row rejected the demand by Turkey for extradition of eight fugitive Turkish soldiers, alleged conspirators in the 2016 failed coup against President Erdogan, on the ground that those would not be granted a fair trial in Turkey. The fact that this one, or some other even more complex extradition dilemmas in Greece were handed over to judges to decide have told of a certain degree of autonomy of judiciary vis-a-vis the government and daily politics (with all its tit-for-tats). Nevertheless, many refugees were returned to Turkey in accordance with its agreement with the EU. According to the Freedom House`s report Freedom in the World 2018, Greek judiciary is “largely independent”, though this is sometimes undermined by corruption.

In comparison to 2016, Greece has notably improved in 2017 regarding anti-graft struggle. In just a year it climbed up 4/100 points (from 44, to the historic high of 48) and has been ranked 59/180 (in 2016 it was 69/176) on the list of the Transparency International`s Corruption Perception Index. This – together with an improved credit rating - has been yet another fruit of the post-2015 orientation of the country towards painful economic reforms coupled with anti-corruption campaign. But to exchange the status of a seriously corrupt country with the one where corruption is just medium present, Greece will have to reform its economic system further, by cutting crony ties between politics and business, by de-monopolization of further fields of economy, by curbing tax evasion, etc., in

Freedom of expression and association in Greece are fairly well respected. Academic freedom is further on perhaps the best protected one, of all forms of expression. However, ethnic minorities and their associations face considerable limitations, even regarding recognition thereof. Religious tolerance and pluralism have advanced under the post-2015 left-wing government, and parallel to it also secularism, seriously challenging the previously privileged position of the biggest religious community, the Greek Orthodox Church. Influx of new refugees has decreased and the resettlement of those present is on, yet dozens of thousands are still trapped on Ionian Sea islands in bad living conditions. Greece is an important transit point for human trafficking. Government fights it with

Private property rights in Greece are mostly respected, but there are many areas for concern. Most of the problems lie in weak government institutions. Judicial impartiality is not perceived as high, and corruptive practices within judiciary are still present. The court system is extremely time consuming, with contract enforcement lasting more than 4 years on average. Recently introduced reforms in this area, such as tighter rules on adjournments and deadlines for court procedures, so far have not born expected results. Since there are no specialized commercial courts, commercial cases are presented before general courts. Obtaining real property in Greece is a complicated and expensive process, since there are multiple layers of authority in issuance and approval of land use and zoning,

General government expenditure in Greece reached almost 49% of GDP in 2017. Due to the great political upheaval regarding the 2015 referendum on the ESM agreement, investments had come to a halt and the economy had gone through another recession, but it finally recorded a growth, of 1.4% in 2017. Investments are slowly rising, but are still low, and the output gap is slowly closing. Unemployment is still extremely high, but also slowly decreasing, having fallen below 20% recently. Government budget is balanced, but the public debt remains among the highest ones in the world, standing at 182% of GDP in 2017. Although Greece successfully terminated the ESM program in August 2018, its public debt level is almost certainly still unsustainable. Public transfers remain very high, and pension

Regulatory environment in Greece is not overall business-friendly. Political and economic instability led to a freeze in new investments, which only recently surpassed 10% of GDP. Furthermore, corruption and burdensome bureaucracy continue to make barriers to new market entrants, leading to the low level of competition in many industries. Regulations could be competing, creating a level of business uncertainty. This situation is also evident in professional services – pharmacists, lawyers, notaries, etc. – where regulation creates quotas and similar entry barriers. On the other hand, starting a new business is easy and inexpensive, done within two weeks and with a symbolic minimum paid-in capital of just one euro. A unified social security institution was created, in order to make

Freedom to trade in Greece is generally respected. As an EU member state, Greece implements the common EU trade policy, with overall low trade tariffs. The Most Favoured Nation tariff rate on manufactured goods stands at 5.1%, while many agriculture products, such as sugar and dairy, face substantially higher tariffs. On the other hand, non-tariff obstacles to trade remain present mostly due to the complicated process of product standardization. Customs service is not well organized, with expensive or slow procedures and widespread corruption practices, which further hinders trade. High freight costs are partially attributed to the deteriorating public transport infrastructure, since there is a lack of resources for its maintenance and resolving of the transportation