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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
The debate on the exact meaning and content of their constitutional identity has a long history in many European countries, with national courts playing the leading role. Ten years ago, this debate was given a new boost by the Treaty on European Union (TEU), article 4 paragraph 2 of which urges the European Union to respect the constitutional identities of the Member States. The national courts in a number of Member States saw in this provision the recognition of their zealous efforts to control the ongoing expansion of EU competences and to overcome the absolute primacy of EU law over domestic constitutional law. In Greece, however, no debate on the possible use of constitutional identity as a limit to the European Union and its law had taken place—at least not until recently. Our main objective in this article is to try to explain why Greek courts, and especially the Symvoulion Epikrateias, the supreme administrative court, failed to develop and make recourse to a notion of constitutional identity, even in cases they had good reasons to do so, and to find out if—and, if yes, to what extent—the situation has changed after the outbreak of the financial and, soon after, the migration crises. The analysis of the relevant case-law will permit us to conclude that the Greek constitutional identity is currently still under construction and that it is constructed using elements from both the liberal and the exclusionist models.
1 See Armin von Bogdandy & Stephan Schill, Overcoming Absolute Primacy: Respect for National Identity Under the Lisbon Treaty, 48 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 1417 (2011). For an overview see Polzin, Monica, Constitutional Identity as a Constructed and Restless Soul, and Pietro Faraguna, Constitutional Identity – A Shield or a Sword? The Dilemma of Constitutional Identities in the EU, both published in the present issue of the GERMAN L. J.Google Scholar
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10 Around the same time, Symvoylion Epikrateias was faced with a similar problem in another case. The case had to do with the ethnic origin of the students in military schools. There was a minority opinion which stated that Greek citizens who were not Greek by birth but by naturalization could not be accepted in military schools because the domain of national security and defense is a sensitive one and citizens who were not Greek by birth could constitute a possible threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state. There was, however, no reference to the national identity of Greece. See Symvoylion Epikrateias [Supreme administrative court] 3317/2014.Google Scholar
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36 Via an action under article 258 TFEU (former article 226 TEC) for failure to fulfill obligations.Google Scholar
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39 The peculiarity of higher education in the Greek social context is also evident in a more recent case of Symvoylion Epikrateias concerning the cuts in university professors' salaries. In that case, the court ruled that the quality of services provided by university professors and their role in the education of the new generation deprives the government from the possibility of cutting their salaries over a certain amount due to the financial crisis and the need to reduce public spending. See Symvoulion Epikratias [Supreme administrative court] 4741/2014.Google Scholar
40 We are saying “especially” because, despite the defuse nature of the constitutionality review in Greece, the Symvoulion Epikrateias gradually became the main judicial body reviewing the constitutionality of domestic laws and interpreting the EU law. See VASILIOS SKOURIS & EVANGELOS VENIZELOS, O DIKASTIKOS ELEGHOS THS SYNTAGMATIKOTHTAS TON NOMON [THE JUDICIAL REVIEW OF CONSTITUTIONALITY] 66–68 (1985); Akritas Kaidatzis, Greece's Third Way in Prof. Tushnet's Distinction Between Strong-Form and Weak-Form Judicial Review, and What We May Learn from It, Jus Politicum (2014), http://juspoliticum.com/uploads/pdf/jp13_kaidatzis.pdf, at 14.Google Scholar
41 According to the more recent statistics; In Greece reside 151.200 EU and around 800.000 third country nationals. On the contrary, around 1.000.000 Greek citizens are residing in other EU Member States. See Foreign and Foreign-Born Population by Group of Citizenship and Country of Birth, Eurostat, (last visited Sept. 17, 2017), http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/images/d/d8/Foreign_and_foreign-born_population_by_group_of_citizenship_and_country_of_birth_2012.png;Google Scholar
42 Only the Greek Communist Party (KKE) voted against the ratification of the treaty. All the other parties of the parliament, the center-right Nea Dimokratia (ND), the socialist PA.SO.K., and the left-wing Synaspismos (today called SYRIZA), gave 286 positive votes collectively. See Papadimitriou, Georgios, I evropaiki enopiisi kai to ethniko syntagma [The European Integration and the National Constitution], in I Oloklirosi Tis Eyropaikhs Enosis [The Conclusion of European Union] 133 (1995); Julia Iliopoulos-Strangas, supra note 23, at 77–81.Google Scholar
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49 According to article 3 paragraph 3 TEU, “[t}he Union shall establish an internal market. It shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall promote scientific and technological advance”. Google Scholar
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