Athens, 11 February 2026
Press Release
On Wednesday, 11 February, a press conference on the current state of the Rule of Law in Greece was successfully held with significant attendance at the Irida Cinema Theatre. The event was organised by the independent organisations HIAS Greece, Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), Vouliwatch, the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), the Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR), Homo Digitalis, Reporters United and Solomon.
You may watch the press conference here.
You can read and download the report here.
We would like to warmly thank omniatv for the organisation and online hosting of the press conference, as well as the Photography Department of POFPA for hosting the event at the Irida Cinema Theatre.
Representatives of the participating organisations presented the key findings of the joint submission that we submitted for the fourth consecutive year to the European Commission on the Rule of Law in Greece in 2025, as part of the Commission’s annual monitoring of national systems.
We underlined the now urgent need to address the longstanding rule of law concerns in Greece. The issues documented in the report are interconnected and have nefarious effects on an array of facets of the rule of law, from justice, law-making and transparency rules to press freedom, civil society and data protection.
Our organisations have submitted this report to the European Commission and thoroughly document the pervasive, interconnected issues and deficiencies within Greek institutions as we experience them in our daily work and reality. We will continue to defend the Rule of Law in Greece. We expect no less from the institutions tasked with safeguarding it.
In presenting the report, Stefanos Loukopoulos, Director of Vouliwatch, stated: “The Rule of Law is founded on institutions that operate independently, on procedures that are consistently followed, and on rights that are effectively protected. Once again this year, our report highlights troubling trends that put these fundamental prerequisites at risk. At a time when institutional checks and balances appear fragile, and when illegality risks becoming normalised, the role of civil society is to act as a guardian of democratic institutions. Not from an ideological standpoint, but from the conviction that democracy requires constant vigilance and scrutiny of power.”
This was followed by an intervention from Minos Mouzourakis, lawyer at Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), who noted: “The demand for an independent and genuine investigation and for accountability is urgent and collective, from Pylos to Tempi, from the waters off Chios to the servers of the surveillance scandal. Until this country becomes a state governed by the rule of law and a just state for each and every one of us.”
Finally, Danai Maragoudaki, journalist at Solomon, emphasised: “In recent years, there have been frequent debates about the independence of the media and the concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few business interests. In Greece, genuine pluralism remains elusive. A healthy democracy presupposes an independent press that can hold power to account without fear or dependency.”
The press conference also featured an intervention by Aikaterina Papanikolaou, lawyer and former member of the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), who highlighted the key challenges facing the Rule of Law in Greece today. The press conference was moderated by Thodoris Chondrogiannos, journalist at Reporters United, who also conveyed the latest developments from the surveillance trial currently underway.
