Needless paperwork to be abolished
Plan to enable state, public institutions to get necessary data digitally without burdening citizens
As part of the government’s stated commitment to crack down on needless and time-consuming bureaucracy, the Digital Governance Ministry plans to gradually abolish the endless number of certificates required in the transactions between citizens and both the private and public sectors with the introduction of the relevant legislation in the coming months.
Currently, any transaction with municipal authorities and the private sector requires an endless list of certificates, including birth, marital status, place of residence and so on.
Tellingly, in the last four years, through Gov.gr and the Citizen Service Centers (KEP), more than 8.6 million family status certificates and more than 2 million birth certificates have been issued, not even counting those issued by the municipalities themselves. The reality is that the rapid digitization of recent years was necessary, but has led to a new digital bureaucracy.
The ministry’s goal is, in the first instance, to abolish demographic certificates such as birth, marital status, and citizenship.
Speaking to Kathimerini, a government source said the state already has the required data it needs and should not demand it again at every step of a transaction. Therefore, when citizens need one of these certificates, they will not be forced to reissue them in an endless process. Instead, the institution that wants them will be able to acquire them through a wallet.
“Are we allowed access to your data?” would be the question. If the citizen answers “yes,” then no other process will be needed and the entity will simply get from Gov.gr as much data as it needs.
The aim is for this process to become the norm in the public sector. In this way the range of transactions that will not require the issuance of certificates will grow.
There are dozens of examples. Indicatively, certificates are needed in the public sector for the registration of a child at school, the transfer of property, acceptance of an inheritance, acceptance of a property transfer, the issue of a motor vehicle or business licence, and matters relating to the armed forces, such as registering someone in the military registers.
Similarly, in the private sector there are many cases where certificates are required. These include new contracts with an electricity supplier, a mobile phone provider and with an insurance company of any kind, such as car, home or life insurance.
