Greece: Law No. 3068 of 2002, Obligation of the Administration to Apply the Judicial Decisions, Promotion of Judges of the Administrative Courts to the Council of State and Other Provisions

Article 15

1.      The following decisions issued by the Administration by virtue of the aliens law can be quashed by the Three Members Administrative First Instance Courts judging under the annulment procedure:

a)      Denial of grant of visa for entry into Greek territory or denial of the extension of the visa.

b)      Denial of entry in Greece

c)      Denial of granting, of renewal or revocation of residence permit

d)      Denial of granting, of renewal or revocation of work permit

e)      Denial of granting, of renewal or revocation of work permit issued to self employed aliens

f)        Administrative deportation

g)      Registration in the list of undesirable aliens

h)      Refoulement to the country of origin or nationality or to a third country

i)        Infliction of restrictions concerning the settlement or the stay of the alien in a concrete area of the country, the exercise of a concrete professional activity or his/her obligation to appear to the police authorities.

2…. The decisions of the first instance Administrative Courts are subject to appeal before the Council of State.

3.      The following cases continue to fall under the jurisdiction of the Council of State:

a)……

b) The recourses of annulment against administrative decisions issued by virtue of the refugee status determination procedure (recognition of the status of refugee) in the sense of the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 Protocol.

c) The recourses of annulment of decisions of the Administration on the acquisition of the Greek citizenship[1].

4.

5.

6. Recourses filed before the Council of State until the entry into force of this article which have not yet been heard are referred to the locally competent Administrative Court.

[1] It is underlined that so far the Greek Council of State considers that it has no authority to judge cases of annulment against decisions rejecting the application of an alien to acquire the Greek citizenship (naturalization procedure). In this sense the Court accepts that the Minister is not obliged to justify the reasons of rejection of the relevant application. On the contrary the Court has decided that it is competent to decide on recourse of annulment against administrative acts by which the Administration withdraws the Greek Citizenship.