An EU citizen or resident can register a complaint with the European Commission against any member state regarding a law, regulation or administrative action if they suspect or know it is incompatible with a provision or principle of EU law or directive.
For example:
- Excessively high
900-euro600-euro fee for a long-term residence permit violates directive 2003/109/EC - Law 3304 that denies non-Greek nationals the renewal of vendor permits to continue doing business in Greece
- Inability of immigrants born in Greece to obtain birth certificates.
How to file online
Individual cases of some urgency can be filed online with Solvit, often receiving resolution in one week to one month. It works.
In English, click here.
In Ellinika, click here.
In Francais, click here.
In Espanol, click here.
Also offered in 17 other languages.
How to file by mail
A letter of complaint can be addressed to:
Commission of the European Communities
Attn: Secretary-General
B-1049 Brussels
BELGIUM
and/or:
The European Commission’s representative
2 Vas Sofias Avenue
106 74 Athens
(210) 727-2100
and/or:
Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos
15 Vas Sofias Avenue
106 74 Athens
*Article last updated on January 2, 2013
Kat Reply:
July 17th, 2011 at 12:18
So what you’re saying is it’s OK for a member of the Greek diaspora not living in Greece to call Athenians unfriendly and manipulative, but a non-Greek living in Greece full time must disclose details on his background and reasons or an outside cause for stating his opinion? That’s chauvinistic.
Foreigners in Greece, and Greeks deemed not Greek enough, are in a difficult position. If we say how glorious things are, we are called clueless tourists who don’t know how things work. If we say anything less than flattering, we are called ungrateful or traitors and told to go home, even if what we’re saying is factual and Greece is our home. I find the people most sensitive to the latter are Greeks living outside Greece who only visit the patrida on vacation or may have lived here a brief period; and native-born Greeks who leave the patrida and come back.
Is it so difficult to believe that a country discriminating against its own native-born women could also be rude to foreigners? Racism, discrimination, chauvinism and nationalism aren’t born overnight, and saying “it is very free here” or “it’s Greek pride” as an explanation for bad behavior borders on egoism. If I had a dime for everything said about Americans…but instead I just let it roll off my back.
I closed comments on this post because the same discussion has played out 100 times on my website and there is no winner. I pray that we all have better things to do.