Ground-breaking gov.gr platform marks third year of existence

Greece’s now prominent digital governance ministry marked three years of existence on Tuesday with a special event in Athens, with top government officials – including PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis – using the occasion to score “brownie points” ahead of coming general elections by focusing on the numerous remote transactions now available to citizens via the online platform gov.gr.

The massive digital initiative coincided with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, with the public sector platform now offering more than 1,500 digital services and transactions between citizens and the state, including the issuance of various types of digital certificates, including IDs and Covid vaccinations in “electronic wallets”.

Practically all of the gov.gr platform’s services are accessible by smart phones and tablets.

On his part, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said gov.gr recorded 1.2 billion online transactions in 2020 alone, the pandemic’s first year, with the first automated service chosen allowing for access to the European emergency number 112.

One huge innovation, by glacial Greek bureaucratic standards, is that practically all medical prescriptions and diagnostic exams in the country are issued electronically. Yet another long-awaited milestone, he said, was the complete abolition of the use of the fax machine in the public sector. European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, who holds the digital issues portfolio, praised the country for moving fast to use technology as a way to improve the daily lives of Greek citizens.