House laws on transparency unconstitutional

Two laws passed by parliament and referred to the Supreme Court by President Nicos Anastasiades were deemed unconstitutional because they provide that the capital statements of government officials’ spouse and children be made public, it was announced on Monday.

The two laws sought to promote transparency in government officials’ financial dealings, but ended up going too far, as the Supreme Court ruled that a clause requiring the posting of the capital statements of their spouse and children on the House of Representatives’ website “in no way can, or is, justified”.

“Spouses and underage children are not considered politically exposed people, in order to be subjected to the obligation of such public scrutiny,” the court ruled.

“The political exposure of people who voluntarily assume public office, thus consenting to a broader and legitimate scrutiny of their private and financial life, thereby incurring limitation to their rights due to their exercising public power, with the requisite and legitimate need to inform the public, relate solely to these people, and not their spouses, who have their own independence and individuality, and, certainly, the right to personal property, independent of that of politically exposed people.”

Any publicisation of their capital statement, it added, “adds nothing to the preventive inspection of transparency and combating corruption in public life”.

Capital statements for both spouses and children of government officials may be submitted to the relevant parliamentary committee for scrutiny, but making them public, as the laws required, would infringe on their individual rights, the court ruled.