The completion of three years of operation of gov.gr was celebrated today Tuesday by the Ministry of Digital Governance at the Concert Hall with a celebratory event “A digital state, Greece in motion” presenting the “invisible side” of the operational structure for each sector separately, the contributors , the people who digitized and simplified the processes, who tried and created the platforms, which were widely used by citizens. Specifically, the “x-ray” of the individual sectors of gov.gr as presented at the event is as follows:

Gov.gr – wallet

The first days of the “birth” of gov.gr and their experiences were shared by Dionysis Kontogiorgis, head of the gov.gr Coordination service, saying that “they are the six characters who changed the lives of many people and ours. Due to a pandemic, gov.gr had to come out in March, it was very difficult the first evenings” and he said that “we reached the point every week of releasing something new that was ready to work. 60% of visits to gov.gr are made from mobile phones and tablets, while over 8 million citizens have entered and issued at least one digital document. The aim is to be the only digital point of service for the citizen with the State”.

For his part, Panos Louridas, Director of Development HERE GRNET, emphasized that “it was a struggle to be able to go out and develop until today”. In fact, he emphasized that “the technology used in the Ukraine war is the technology we developed for the covid wallet to save their information, such as identity.” As he even pointed out that through wallet in the summer there will be an expansion of uses such as renting a car in any country, degrees etc. and in particular he mentioned that with the experience of designing and implementing the gov.gr wallet, he actively participates in the work carried out at the EU level to create a “European digital wallet” so that all citizens of the Union can carry out specific procedures (renting a car, etc. .etc) from a single application to the standard created by the European covid digital certificate.

Exciting moments are gov.gr for Kostas Hambidis, director of the office of the Minister of Digital Governance responsible for Digital Governance “gov.gr was the first tests of the new Ministry of Digital Governance, it proves that everything we promised was done under pressure. It becomes clear that it was not built a list of services but an ecosystem of applications where all public bodies work together, it is a new concept in the public perception, a mechanism that is constantly reused”. As for the wallet, as he said, it was created out of a need. “The covid wallet was very elegant management of personal health data, with necessary information for control, it was an experiment and this experience automatically carried over to the diploma and identity.”

Interoperability

The importance of interoperability between services was emphasized by Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos, secretary general of Public Administration Information Systems, who initially spoke about the usefulness of taxisnet passwords which were of a limited purpose, however the possibility of their use was extended today for 663 systems. It referred to the way systems were designed for inter-agency communication with each other. From the 20 they had at the beginning in 2019, we reached 183 systems have been created.” He then explained how in 2022 from 8.8 million digital transactions we managed to have 772 million. Finally, he explained how through services such as Know Your Customer, interoperability not only facilitates and upgrades transactions with the Government, but also with the private sector.

For his part, Andreas Drymiotis, president of DELTA – Singular, praised the work of the Minister of Digital Governance and underlined the technological leap made in the issue of elections and concluded that “the result of the money spent on equipment was zero”, while funding to build services has proven valuable as millions of people can be served. As he said, “the message I want to get across is that we have to continue at the same pace to be able to make this place the one we deserve.”

Justice and gov.gr

Panos Alexandris, general secretary of Justice and Human Rights, started by mentioning services of the judicial branch that have been digitized: Single certificate of judicial solvency (before there were 25 different certificates), intangible consensual divorce, certificates and court decisions from each magistrate’s court electronically. She then reported on her progress. digitization of court records and electronic performance, but also the contribution of interoperability to all of the above. Finally, he explained how Artificial Intelligence can contribute to the acceleration of Justice by talking about the need to implement the telematic trial as well, “if we want to see a court of the future”.

Lilian Mitrou, professor at the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering of the University of the Aegean, president of the Institute for Privacy, Personal Data and Technology (European Public Law Organization – www.eplo.org) emphasized the importance of equality in the use of applications, as he pointed out that any citizen can remotely carry out his tasks with respect for the protection of personal data, what has been achieved is the avoidance of the intermediary which is a huge gain, not only financially but also in the direction of equality” and spoke for a correct assessment regarding the use of artificial justice in the public sector, there should be principles of transparency, information of citizens, participation of citizens through their consent.

Konstantinos Lambrinoudakis, a professor in the Department of Digital Systems at the University of Piraeus, spoke about the observance of the principle of personal data, emphasizing that “there is a lot of work behind the scenes to protect citizens’ data. The rules should be effectively implemented.”

Smart Cities

Kostas Tsantidis, director of the office of the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance, spoke about the consultation process with municipalities in order to create “smart” cities, but also to meet their digital upgrading needs. “We had started with about 80 proposals in the municipalities. The projects were structured in the Recovery Fund and the NSRF”. He pointed out that the KEPs also entered the path of a digital transformation by replacing the computers, renovating them, while he mentioned that there will soon be an application for someone to get a priority order from their mobile phone” and added that it is planned to hold digital training courses in the municipalities in order to the elderly can also use gov.gr.

Finally, he spoke about the fiber to the school program which is in the process of approving 250 million. For his part, Dimitris Papastergiou, mayor of Trikkaia, president of KEDE, emphasized that the funding should be used properly, while he also pointed out the importance of the municipal fees management platform. He also spoke about an initiative to digitize municipal libraries and unify titles.

Health

The Minister of Health, Thanos Pleuris, spoke about the union of forces when talking about preventive examinations “we are looking for citizens to go and do them for free in public or private structures”, while he talked about the use of new technologies in the field of health, the personal doctor, the digital file of health, telemedicine and pointed out the excellent cooperation with the Minister of Digital Governance.

“We saw what needs to be done from the political side” said Niki Tsouma, president and CEO of IDIKA. “They should be abolished, the queues reduced” and he referred to the simplifications in the procedures in human life events such as the birth of a child, social security, insurance awareness, medical file for KEPAs, while he referred to the vaccination system, the immaterial prescription and underlined that “4.5 million citizens have their digital health file on their mobile via the my Health application”. The next steps move along key axes such as the digital upgrade of the country’s hospitals, the system for oncology patients and the expansion of the electronic medical file.

Irini Agapidaki, general secretary of Public Health, referred to the program of preventive examinations, the immaterial prescription of referrals, the program “Fofi Gennimata” for the prevention of breast cancer, while she spoke about the program for the prevention of cervical, lung, skin cancer, as well as for the digital health advisor being designed.