When the phone rang, today’s design team gov.gr was in a meeting with the relevant team from England in the context of preparing a new platform for the provision of digital services to citizens, which will be launched in the summer. The recipient of the call asked the participants for a short break… and announced a government order: the country is going into quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic and it is necessary that some functions can be performed digitally. The app was supposed to be ready in a week! This was at the beginning of March 2020.

As gov.gr completes nearly three years of operation, hundreds digital applications they have become a daily routine for the townspeople. “60% of gov.gr usage is done on mobile phones and tablets, with more than 8 million citizens using it,” characteristically described Dionysis Contogiorgishead of the gov.gr coordinating service, speaking at an event of the Ministry of Digital Governance on the occasion of the completion of three years since his work.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of gov.gr is that it has managed to get everything Database And registers which contained information about citizens who were scattered in many and different places government bodies. “Often, a citizen appeared in one database as married, and in another as single,” the department noted. Demosthenes AnagnostopoulosSecretary General of Public Administration Information Systems.

Now the citizen announces each event only once, after which the public services are automatically informed about the change. Characteristically, a citizen had to report the birth of a child to five different services, and today the system is automatically updated by the maternity hospital, and the citizen receives the AMCA of his child according to the message.

Over 1500 can be done through gov.gr State procedures. But how many procedures do a citizen need to apply to the state? “About 5,000,” said the minister of digital governance. Kyriakos Pierrakakisspeaking at the event and promised that within the next 4 years they will all be digitized.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis anticipating the next digital promotions, he called on all those present at the event to immediately download Application “My health”because, as he pointed out, soon it will not just be a way to quickly get answers to our medical tests, but will turn into a tool for preventing and protecting our health. “Technology doesn’t stop. Either it will catch up with us, or we will take advantage of it,” the Prime Minister stressed.

On the next step Gov.gr Wallet, which today contains – symbolically – our identity card and driver’s license, will be supplemented by other documents related to our identification. As also mentioned during the event, the creation of a “European digital wallet” is expected to allow all EU citizens to be able to carry out certain procedures, such as for example car rental through a single application, modeled on the European COVID certificate.

Numbers

8 million citizens took advantage.

60% they enter from a tablet or mobile phone.

1514 the services it provides today compared to 501 when it started.

5000 procedures by which a citizen must apply to the state.