Greece emerged as the EU’s poster child in the fight against COVID-19 during the first few months of the pandemic. In this contribution, we assess Greece’s use of soft regulation in its regulatory response to COVID-19. Using “acts of legislative content”, which can be broadly conceptualised as softly adopted hard law, the Greek government largely achieved flexibility and simplified adoption procedures without having to resort to soft law per se. The role of soft law was limited - it complemented hard law rather than constituting the primary basis of COVID-19 restrictions - but not completely negligible. Soft law instruments regulated the processing of personal data, and was also pivotal in clarifying the criminal sanctioning of COVID-related rule violations. Greece’s success in handling the first wave of the pandemic, while effective, was arguably unfair to asylum seekers who saw their right to apply for asylum curtailed, and their right to freedom of movement restricted when limitations on the rest of the population were lifted. With a second wave of infections currently in full swing, it is imperative to keep scrutinising regulatory responses to ensure that they place the health and dignity of every individual (whoever they might be) at their core and fully respect their fundamental rights.

中文翻译：

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温柔地杀了我？审查软法在希腊应对 COVID-19 中的作用

在大流行的头几个月，希腊成为欧盟对抗 COVID-19 的典型代表。在这篇文章中，我们评估了希腊在应对 COVID-19 时使用软监管的情况。使用“立法内容的行为”，可以广义地概念化为软采用的硬法，希腊政府在很大程度上实现了灵活性并简化了采用程序，而不必诉诸软法本身。软法的作用是有限的——它补充了硬法，而不是构成 COVID-19 限制的主要基础——但并非完全可以忽略不计。软法律文书规范了个人数据的处理，并且在澄清对与 COVID 相关的违规行为的刑事制裁方面也至关重要。希腊成功应对第一波大流行，虽然有效，可以说对寻求庇护者来说是不公平的，他们看到他们申请庇护的权利受到限制，并且当对其他人口的限制解除时，他们的行动自由权受到限制。随着第二波感染的全面爆发，必须继续审查监管措施，以确保将每个人（无论他们是谁）的健康和尊严放在核心位置，并充分尊重他们的基本权利。