ATHENS – The Digital Governance Code, which is to be put to a period of consultation in Parliament in the coming days, will bring significant changes to the lives of Greeks, according to Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

Specifically, he explained, it will usher in new habits, fewer procedures and less bureaucracy, as well as a legislative framework for the Single Citizen Number, digital signatures, digital stamps and digital documents.

Pierrakakis spoke to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) about the usefulness and the key role of the Code, stressing that "when we started planning our digital policy, we saw the importance of codifying the exisiting legal framework, so that everyone is aware of what applies. We did not want there to be a single incident of denial of service by a public service because no interpretative circular had arrived. The Digital Governance Code comes to meet these two goals: to update and unify the legislation on digital governance."

On his part, the secretary general of digital governance and simplification of procedures, Leonidas Christopoulos, said: "The Digital Governance Code is the necessary institutional framework for the digital transformation of both the state and society at large. It is a bill that lays the groundwork for the further recovery of citizens' trust in the state and public administration. At the same time, it has a highly developmental character, obeying, at the same time, the principles of protection of citizens' personal information. We believe that with this bill, the staff meets the digital state, creating a new, positive dynamic in state-citizen relations. It comes, after all, to radically improve the way citizens interact with the State, but also the internal communication and organisation of the State."