Greek Supreme Court Calls for Legislation to Align Military and Civilian Judges’ Retirement Limits

The Greek Supreme Court has ruled that a law must be enacted to apply the retirement limits for military judges that are currently in place for other judicial officials, such as civil courts. This decision came following an annulment request from military court judges who sought equal application of the retirement age as stipulated in Article 88 paragraph 5 of the Constitution. The seven-member panel of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, led by Vice President Diomedes Kyriilopoulos and rapporteur adviser Epikrateia Vasilis Androulakis, noted that during the 2019 constitutional revision, it was decided that military judges would be equated with regular judges in all aspects. However, the court stated that the automatic application of provisions governing the service status of regular judges to military judges (who hold dual roles as members of the Armed Forces and judicial officers) is not feasible. According to Article 96 paragraph 5 of the Constitution, a law must be issued to activate the constitutional provision regarding this alignment. This law should be enacted within a reasonable time frame, which the court determined had not yet elapsed since the 2019 revision, given that the impending retirement was less than two and a half years away. Nevertheless, as of December 2024, the court announced that the reasonable timeframe had passed, emphasizing the necessity for immediate legislative action without further delay to avoid violating constitutional obligations.