A new wallet, until the end of the year, with a unique innovation, announced the Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou speaking on the First Program.

The new wallet

In the new wallet, which will be in operation until the end of December, according to the minister, the documents will now have a dynamic presence, i.e. everything that needs to be changed will change by itself. “In essence, we are now integrating the citizen’s wallet into the wallet, which is very important. The citizen’s box still exists today, but we know little about it and it is the official repository of documents of the Greek State. It is the point from which we can get any certificate we have issued in the past, notify us of obligations and rights we have and this now has a legal place of service in our inbox for those of us who have a mobile phone. For those who don’t have and don’t want, there are always the KEPs and we keep such a line at the same time” said Mr. Papastergiou.

“Now we are getting closer” said the minister referring to the implementation of the Personal Number which will be unique for each citizen and is expected to correct the incompatibilities in the state registers.

“The work of providing a personal number has to do with the digital part, which is ready and with the inscription on the identity cards. (…) With the Personal Data Protection Authority, all this time there was a conversation in relation to today’s identities, not those that will now come out with the personal number. These talks were finalized and the Authority came to a conclusion about three weeks ago. So now, together with the Citizen’s Protection, we are working on her observations, in order to be able to issue the personal number that is now digitally finished, but also to be recorded on the identity cards”.

Regarding the issuance of a new identity card, Mr. Papastergiou noted that for a week now there is no obligation for the citizen to go to the police station of his permanent residence. “There was an issue, that in some police stations and especially in areas where many of our fellow citizens live, they were fed up. They had reached their limit. Now you can go anywhere, so this makes it possible, through the new platform we built, to get your identity card by looking at which police stations near you have availability” the minister pointed out while being asked if citizens should proceed with a new issue of identity card when they will have the Personal Number now, he said “the approximately one million IDs that have been issued from last year to this year are valid normally and will be valid”. Obviously, in the new ones we will also put the personal number on top. What is urgent is to get away from the old blue identities. So let’s all go get new IDs with the personal number in a little while.”

The single register for vehicles

The clearance of the vehicle registry is being completed, the minister then said. “I believe that by the end of November we will now have the first material so that we know which vehicles are out there, which are legal, are insured, have a vehicle registration certificate, do not create problems and stay in the middle of the road and everyone else suffers. So let’s know basic facts about the country’s vehicles. This will help us a lot now and in many other policies that we can draw up” he said.

In addition, he pointed out that next Wednesday, the possibility to change energy providers via gov.gr will be presented.

“In an energy market which is now much faster, much more direct, we can change providers every month depending on the prices, instead of having to send even an email to a provider with some information about our residence, identity us, all this is now done from one platform and from the wallet in about a month, but next Wednesday it starts working from the interoperability we give. That is, we enter with the taxis codes, we follow the steps, that is, in essence, we identify ourselves, this platform automatically pulls all our details and the details of our property, which go directly to the provider in order to complete the contract without sending anything. So within 2 minutes we can have changed provider. The next step, which will also take us about a month, is the direct signing of the contract. That is, not to send you anything at all, to say that I consent to the signing of the contract and do absolutely nothing. It also applies to energy and telecommunications, which were easier anyway. You won’t need to send even a PDF, a digital file with your ID or any evidence” described Mr. Papastergiou.

Greece-Cyprus unite their digital identities

“I am very happy because on November 25, a very important initiative, at least for those of us who deal with technology, is now being announced, in order for the first two European states to put it into practice, to unite their digital identities. With the know-how we have acquired in Greece with our digital wallet, we come together with the Republic of Cyprus and do the following. That now all the digital identities in the wallet will be recognized normally in Cyprus, and in Cyprus the digital citizen, as the digital wallet is called there, will now be able to work in Greece as well. That is, normally this document as a digital document should be accepted and all the documents of the Gov.gr and the Cypriot Gov.cy with the electronic marking that they have should be accepted without any other seal or certificate of authenticity from the two states. So it is very important, when we talk about a nation, to draw common policies in digital technologies and this starts with joint initiatives of the two states. At the same time, we will also receive very important information from Cyprus, because in other areas, such as eIDAS, which is the common European marking for identity cards, they have advanced further than us,” the minister added.

Finally, Mr. Papastergiou, on the occasion of the great response that the application for free access to the beaches had on the public, announced that something similar is being prepared for the public areas.

“Any application that comes to answer real problems that society has, obviously succeeds. And that’s exactly what MyCoast did. It emerged as a digital solution to the issue of free access to beaches. It was hugely popular. Indeed, it was close to 100,000 complaints, if I remember the number correctly. Obviously not all of them were correct. There were exaggerations, but first there was a clear sense that not everyone does what they want. Thousands of checks were made by the Ministry of Finance. It was an application that we set up together with the Ministry of Finance and I think that things have now found their balance. It was a very successful application. We make the equivalent. There is a stated desire of the prime minister to clean up the common areas and keep in the common area, the space we want to drink coffee to have a good time with our friends, but also leave critical space for all the people who want to walk, people with disabilities, parents with children. Well, here comes this application that comes to put order in the common areas of our city” he said characteristically.