The Alternate Minister of National Defence Panos Rigas, during the debate at the plenary session of the Hellenic Parliament about the Bill of the Ministry of National Defence ”Arrangements for the Welfare of the Armed Forces’ Personnel, Conscription, Military Justice and Other Provisions” conducted on Thursday 18 April 2019, mentioned the following:
Ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament,
This Bill is the product of the Staffs’ systematic processing, but also of our political volition to face faults, injustices and oversights and secure the regular and effective function of our homeland’s Armed Forces.
It pertains to an array of interventions and updates on mature and lingering problems, which the government has decided to eliminate. Well–known problems discussed by the members of the Armed Forces for years, while waiting for a solution.
I would like to stress that:
The political leadership, long before SYRIZA took office, was aware of several of the issues resolved in this Bill, such as the issue of the Extended Service Volunteers or of members with many children, members with health issues or those who have the custody of individuals who face serious problems. The personnel had been assured that these issues would be resolved, by Ms Gennimata for example, when she served as the Alternate Minister of National Defence. However nothing was accomplished, up until now.
This is the only reason we submit this Bill for voting: Because we have the capability, but also the volition, to amend anything causing disharmony.
That is why our legislative intervention modifies preexisting provisions, to regulate and make more effective the already existing regulations.
It is obvious, from the procedure and the number of comments during deliberation, but also from the hearing of bodies conducted on Tuesday at the Committee, that almost all of the Armed Forces services consider this Bill a positive development.
Obviously and for good reason, various suggestions and corrective remarks were submitted. Myself as well as the Minister were and continue to be willing to accept all correct remarks, this being the meaning of a fruitful dialogue.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament,
The main focus of this Bill is the issues of welfare provided by the Ministry of National Defence to the career military personnel of the Armed Forces and the soldiers serving due to their conscription obligations, as well as issues concerning draft-evaders, conscientious objectors and other administrative procedures.
I would like to concisely present to you its most basic points:
1st. The capability to legally support the members and soldiers of the Armed Forces with functionaries of the State’s Legal Council during trials in penal courts concerning illegal acts attributed to them during the execution of their duties.
2nd. The establishment, for the first time in the Armed Forces, of Members’ Legal Protection Offices, where members can refer to, when they are wronged by actions of mismanagement or omissions of the Service’s bodies.
3rd. Provision for reduced working hours for members with 50% disability who suffer from type A diabetes mellitus or those who care for such an individual or child.
4th. The opportunity to members of the Armed Forces who face health issues or suffer from some kind of disability or from diabetes mellitus, they themselves or members of their family, to serve in posts of their preference.
5th. Care for students of the Hellenic Air Force Academy as well as other military academies, who face health issues during their studies, so that their expulsion will not be conducted without further proceedings and consideration and so that they may have the opportunity to remain in the Armed Forces.
6th. The opportunity to members of the Armed Forces with families including three or more children, to serve in posts of their preference.
7th. A provision for the lump sums submitted as back pay in 2018 to rectify older injustices, to be excluded from the income, so that they will not hinder the submission of any kind of social benefits and allowances, connected to income criteria. This regulation concerns all paid personnel in security forces, musicians, medical personnel etc.
8th. The promotions of the Extended Service Volunteers up to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and the corresponding award of the rank of 1st Lieutenant upon retirement, along with the capability to remain at their quota post, thus securing the right of full pension.
9th. The provision of medical and pharmaceutical care in military hospitals for eligible individuals without medical insurance.
10th. Reduced military service for all the children of families with three children, 8 months in the Army and 9 months in the Hellenic Navy and Hellenic Air Force. Reduced military service for all the children of families with more than three children (6 months).
11th. Provided opportunity to draft-evaders to settle their military obligations without any further expenses, as long as they enlist by the end of 2020.
12th. Regarding conscientious objectors, the following provisions are submitted, in the context of reinstating the principles of equality and impartiality:
– the age limit for the buy-out of alternative service will change from 35 to 33, after first having gone through an alternative service of 20 days.
– the duration of the alternative service of the conscientious objectors is equated with the maximum duration of the soldier’s actual military service and is regulated according to the duration of the 12-month armed service.
– the committee examining the request for inclusion in the alternative service will mainly consist of academics.
At this point I would like to make a special mention:
The first essential way to resolve the issue was conducted way back in 1997, that was the first time that the Greek state regulated the issue, by providing the capability to all the citizens of our country to object to the military service for religious or ideological reasons, because their conscience does not allow them to serve.
I believe that everybody agrees that in democratic societies not all people have the same consciousness. Nor should the majority force its way of thinking on minorities. To the extent that the PMs of the New Democracy party retain something from their liberal tradition, maybe they understand what I am saying.
The aforementioned regulation of 1997 was imposed on us. Up to that point, various condemning decisions had been issued for our country, since fellow citizens were imprisoned in military prisons for disobedience and were discharged under certain terms, after first having remained imprisoned for many months.
This existing problem was so intense that during the constitutional reform of 2001 an interpretive statement was integrated in article 4 of the Constitution mentioning in its 6th paragraph that: “Every Greek citizen who is able to bear arms is obligated to contribute to the defence of the Homeland, according to the regulations of law” and adding that this does not exclude the law’s capability to be able to stipulate “obligatory service of different type, in or out of the Armed Forces (alternative service), for individuals with well-founded conscientious objection for the execution of armed or generally military service”. This last part mentions the particular interpretive statement, word for word.
In previous years alternative service was more than double in duration than the military service and it kept being reduced, finally reaching 15 months. Since someone did not serve in the military, he served more in an alternative way. That was, simply put, the applied legal framework.
This extra time in service led to accusations that this obligation was a kind of punishment, something which I consider understandable. However, it is part of your obsession. Furthermore, the change in composition of the special committee pertains to the removal of a member from the military and particularly from the Medical Corps. That member will be replaced.
The ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament should know that anyone appealing to reasons of consciousness goes through medical, psychological and psychiatric examinations and if he is deemed capable to serve, only then does he appear before the special committee.
First comes the medical report by a competent committee of exemptions, thus making the presence of an officer of the Medical Corps in the committee redundant. What is the point of this officer calling into question the recent ruling of an Armed Forces Medical Committee?
This officer will be replaced by competent Instructive Scientific Personnel, aiming to provide to the ruling of this committee all the guarantees of impartiality and to achieve the greatest possible trust on its judgment, as dictated by the pertinent case-law.
13th. Provision for the inclusion of military academies in the system of student transfers, regarding siblings studying in different cities.
14th. Inclusion of the Eurocontrol reimbursement in the preserved benefits concerning the civilian personnel of Hellenic National Meteorological Service.
15th. Provision for a special percentage of induction in Military Academies regarding candidates coming from areas ravaged by the fires of the 23rd and 24th July 2018 and the floods of the 15th November 2017, by exceeding the total amount of inductees.
16th. The issuing of modern identification cards for the Armed Forces military personnel, so that they can be used as a travel document.
17th. Care for the risk and disability allowances paid to members of the Armed Forces.
One would expect that all of the above would not be considered “obsessions of the left” or an effort to “disband the Armed Forces”. Especially since they concern our country’s Armed Forces, which we all agree should be left out of parties’ tendentiousness and pointless political stand-offs, since the goals of the Armed Forces are national.
Instead of that, the party of the New Democracy opted for the well-known course of the last four years, of generic doom-saying and complete equalisation, decorated with sonorous promises that “this law will be abolished in its entirety” once the New Democracy party takes office. So, let us assure the individuals serving the high purpose of our country’s National Defence. There is no danger of abolishing the provisions which we submit today, at least for the next four years. With these provisions we invest on the men and women serving in the Armed Forces.
