The pet.gov.gr platform was launched, with the aim of providing a more friendly and comprehensive service to veterinarians, pet owners and managers, through a series of new digital services.

The project is implemented in the context of the cooperation of the Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou and the Deputy Minister of the Interior Thodoris Livanios and in implementation of Law 4830/2021 “New framework for the well-being of companion animals – Program “ARGOS” and other provisions”, the aim of which is to improve the living conditions of companion animals and to protect of stray animals, with the cooperation of the competent state bodies of the local government, veterinarians, animal welfare associations and organizations, as well as shelters.

The implementation and coordination of the project has been undertaken by the General Secretariat of Information Systems and Digital Governance with the assistance of the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Companion Animals of the Ministry of the Interior, under the supervision of the competent General Secretaries Dimosthenes Anagnostopoulos and Marianthis Dimopoulos respectively.

The most important innovations of pet.gov.gr are the following:

• Greece obtains a National Register of Companion Animals. For the first time, a single official platform for recording and monitoring the welfare and health conditions of companion animals is created that is open and supports veterinarians, owners, contractors, animal lovers and Public Administration.
• Provision of an electronic health record: Pets get a digital health record and their owners and managers get digital access to their data.
• Digital management for the “Argos” Program – resources & obligations of Municipalities: An integrated system of digital management of strays is created by each Municipality, while at the same time the transparency of the procedures for the successful implementation of the program is ensured.
• Establishment of the necessary Digital Pet Registers of animal welfare associations and organizations, shelters and breeders.
• Establishing a coherent digital supervision framework with representativeness and transparency, to control the health and well-being of companion animals.
Veterinarians, who are also responsible for the initial registration of each companion animal, have access to the new digital platform, as well as citizens through Taxisnet codes, while the employees of Municipalities, Regions and State Agencies, enter with Public Administration codes .

The first seven services that are currently available either directly through pet.gov.gr or through gov.gr in the “Citizen and everyday life” category and the new “Pets” life event are the following:

1. Pet Registration and Tracking (veterinarian environment)
2. Pet Health Booklet (for owners – managers – Contractors)
3. Register of animal welfare associations and pet organizations (for registration of animal welfare associations and organizations in the Register and management of their registrations by the Public Administration)
4. Registry of pet shelters (for registration of shelters and management of their registrations by the Public Administration)
5. Declaration of loss of a pet (for owners)
6. Declaration of finding a companion animal (for owners)
7. Declaration of transfer of companion animal (for owners)

It is also given the ability for owners to receive a QR code for their companion animal, so that in case of loss it can be easily identified.

Alongside, is in pilot mode for the Local Government and the Public Administration the Management System of Local Government Actions and Monitoring of Operational Programs.

As part of the 2nd phase of the project which will be activated in February 2024, as with the 3rd phase that will be put into production in July 2024, new digital functions will be made available to pet owners, through a mobile application, digital services will be activated for breeders, Panhellenia will be put into operation Platform for the Adoption of Stray Companion Animals, the services provided to citizens, municipalities, animal welfare organizations, animal welfare associations and shelters will be enriched.

It is pointed out that any data registered in the “Pets” system of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food were transferred to the new Pet Registration and Monitoring Registry of the National Pet Registry.

For the up-to-date recording of these data, pet owners are requested to ensure, through their veterinarian, that they are updated, as in the previous system some information was not mandatory to be recorded electronically or were not recorded for any reason, therefore they have not been transferred to EMZS. These are data, which are either mandatory based on Law 4830/2021, to be reported in the EMZS, such as sterilization if an animal is sterilized, or were mandatory in the past, such as vaccination for example, but nevertheless were not registered until now. The owners of dogs and cats, who until today had not proceeded to mark and register their animal, are invited to visit their veterinarian immediately to proceed with their registration in the EMZS.

In addition, it is noted that for the Animal Welfare Associations and Non-Profit Organizations, on whose behalf stray pets were registered as owners in the “Pets” system of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, it has been foreseen in the EMZS and will start special digital operation with a specific procedure, limited time coverage, with the aim of changing the situation of these animalsas long as they have not been adopted and remain under the management of the animal welfare association or organization as strays.