Papastergiou: Greek state services fully digitized by 2027

Greece’s leap into digital transformation over the last four years and the government’s aim to totally digitize people’s experience with state services by 2027 was outlined by Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou on Thursday, speaking at the ‘Smart Country Convention’ in Berlin.

The minister first referred to the Greek government’s gov.gr online platform and the 1,600 different public services it offers, mentioning the 8.3 million adult Greeks who are using the platform and the 20 million monthly searches on it.

Despite the fact that Greece “has a strong bureaucracy,” he noted, “it is the Greek government’s intention to continue to tackle it, as there is no room for bureaucracy in the digital domain.”

Papastergiou also mentioned an upcoming Greek legislation concerning cybersecurity, in alignment with EU directives, concerning the electronic monitoring of key public and private infrastructures.

The Greek minister also referred to his meeting earlier on Thursday with the German Minister for Digital & Transport, Volker Wissing, with whom Papastergiou discussed “the shared concerns about how best to tread on the path towards a regulatory framework for Artificial Intelligence.”

Greece and Germany both have AI high on their agendas, he added, and “how it should be integrated into the civil service, the public – and other – sectors.”

Finally, the Greek minister noted that he briefed Wissing on the initiative of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ to set up an A.I. Commitee (which has already convened) and which will “help prepare our country in the face of radical developments brought along by A.I. technology.”