President: Kostas Mavrias, Professor of Constitutional Law, Athens University School of Law.

The Scientific Council has 10 members, the President included, and answers directly to the Speaker of the Parliament. Its President must be a university professor specialized in Constitutional law and experienced in parliamentary law. Members include a public law professor, a private law professor, a european law professor, a penal law professor, a political sciences professor, an economics professor, a statistics professor, an informatics professor and an expert in international relations. The first nine members must be -active or not- first degree professors while the tenth member may be a high ranking public functionary or employee, be they still in office or not. 

The Scientific Council primarily

a) provides its opinion, upon the President’s request, on naming Heads of Scientific Service directorates and departments;

b) supervises Scientific Service publications;

c) organizes and hosts seminars for the benefit of Scientific Service Directorates;

d) makes suggestions and proposals regarding cooperation with other relevant or similar services and departments in other parliaments or international organizations and follows their work so as to conduct comparative studies.

The Scientific Council holds meetings, be they plenary or section sittings, upon the Speaker’s or its President’s invitation. There are two Sections, one with 5 and another with 6 members.

The President of the Scientific Council may, by decision of the Speaker, supervise, with the assistance of the Directorate for Scientific Supervision, the work of the Directorate for the Library, the Directorate for Benakis Library and Political Heritage Collections, the Directorate of Informatics and New Technologies and subsequently brief the Speaker and the Scientific Council.

The President of the Scientific Council, among other duties,

a) Forwards, to Scientific Studies’ Directorates, copies of Bills and Law Proposals which are sent over to the Scientific Service by the Speaker for them to be legislatively elaborated and which subsequently the President reviews;

b) Reads and reviews or asks other Scientific Council members to read and review, scientific reports that Scientific Service associates and special associates produce, regarding legislation as well as reads and reviews other reports, studies and surveys which the Directorates of the Scientific Service forward to the Scientific Council, or writes a report on them;

c)  Reports on, or asks another Scientific Council member to report on, any matter that falls within the Scientific Council’s scope;

d)  Coordinates scientific cooperation and supervises research studies and surveys conducted by the Directorates that make up the Scientific  Service of the Hellenic Parliament.

 

tel: 210 3673351, 210 3673101 fax: 210 3673203

e-mail: m.papadopoulou@parliament.gr