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Greece

Open provision of Geo-data (GR0053)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Greece National Action Plan 2016-2018

Action Plan Cycle: 2016

Status: Inactive

Institutions

Lead Institution: Ministry of Environment and Energy, ΕΘΕΓ, ΕΚΧΑ ΑΕ

Support Institution(s): Rest of the Ministries and public sector entities

Policy Areas

E-Government, Land & Spatial Planning, Open Data, Records Management

IRM Review

IRM Report: Greece End-of-Term Report 2016-2018

Starred: No

Early Results: Did Not Change

Design i

Verifiable: No

Relevant to OGP Values: Access to Information Technology

Potential Impact:

Implementation i

Completion:

Description

Context The Ministry of Environment and Energy, following Law 3882/2010 is responsible to centrally coordinate all involved bodies of the Greek Public Administration that manage/produce/provide geospatial data, so as those data to be provided publicly and in open format to all interested parties. To this end, the Ministry of Environment and Energy will proceed to the adjustment – amendment of the current legislation and undertake all necessary actions to gradually implement and complete this policy. The provided geospatial data will be publicized through the website of the National Geospatial Information Infrastructure by the Ministry, the supervised entities as well as other public sector entities, following technical standards and procedures to be established. Also the data will be posted on the Central Governmental registry data.gov.gr. Under the framework of the above-mentioned action, geospatial data of the Ministry are available at http://maps.ypeka.gr, covering a wide range of thematic pillars OGP Values Access to Information/ Geo-data Implementing bodies Ministry of Environment and Energy, ΕΘΕΓ, ΕΚΧΑ ΑΕ, - cooperation with the rest of the Ministries and public sector entities. Objective To provide open geospatial data of the Public Administration in open formats to all interested parties, according to Directive 2007/2/EC. Then, the National Interoperability Framework geo-information and Services will be established.

IRM End of Term Status Summary

Commitment 23: Geo-Data

Commitment 23: Open provision of Geo-data

The Ministry of Environment and Energy, following Law 3882/2010 is responsible to centrally coordinate all involved bodies of the Greek Public Administration that manage/produce/provide geospatial data, so as those data to be provided publicly and in open format to all interested parties. To this end, the Ministry of Environment and Energy will proceed to the adjustment–amendment of the current legislation and undertake all necessary actions to gradually implement and complete this policy. The provided geospatial data will be publicized through the website of the National Geospatial Information

Infrastructure by the Ministry, the supervised entities as well as other public sector entities, following technical standards and procedures to be established. Also, the data will be posted on the Central Governmental registry data.gov.gr. Under the framework of the above-mentioned action, geospatial data of the Ministry are available at http://maps.ypeka.gr, covering a wide range of thematic pillars.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Environment and Energy

Supporting institution(s): None

Start date: July 2016 End date: November 2016

Editorial Note: The action plan text has been abridged by the IRM. For the full version, please see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/GREEK_NAP3-OGP-ENG_0.pdf

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aimed to enhance the publishing of open geo-data in Greece. Prior to this commitment Greece had to comply with the EU directive INSPIRE that mandates the publishing of geo-data and environmental information.[Note 200: National Infrastructure for Geodata Information, (in Greek), http://www.inspire.okxe.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=68] The official EU monitoring service indicated that “the closing of the initial National Contact Point, the Hellenic Mapping and Cadastral Organization, in 2013 caused significant delays in the implementation of the Directive”.[Note 201: Eionet, Central Data Repository (in Greek), http://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/gr/eu/inspire/monitoring/envwbbkzq/Notes_on_Monitoring_of_year_2016.docx/manage_document] According to the commitment text the Ministry of Environment would coordinate with all the public agencies that have geospatial information to help them release it in open formats. It included activities to release additional open geo-datasets as well as inserting changes in the legal framework of Law 3882. However, the original commitment text was vaguely worded and thus it remained unclear which specific geospatial datasets and legal amendments to expect.

Status

Midterm: Limited

This commitment was carried over from the previous action plan. The previous commitment focused on adding specific datasets to the national geospatial information infrastructure as a way to improve compliance with the requirements of Law 3882/2010 that implemented the EU INSPIRE Directive - specifically to publish the relevant datasets on the Greek geospatial open data site.[Note 202: Wayback machine archived version of geodata.gov.gr, https://goo.gl/KnYcD7] This commitment had limited implementation at the midterm evaluation point. The coordination of all public agencies by the Ministry of Environment to release geospatial information in open formats proved an unrealistic goal. According to officials from the Ministry of Environment,[Note 203: Vassilis Gekas, Ministry of Environment, telephone interview with IRM researchers, September 2018.] public agencies had insufficient capacity to keep up with the policy area of releasing geospatial data that has complex operational aspects, legal implications and requires significant technical capabilities.  

End of term: Limited

The release of new geospatial datasets in open formats has not progressed.[Note 204: Ibid.] The head of the Department of Geospatial Information in the Ministry of Environment reports that a joint effort with the Ministry of Digital Policy to coordinate public agencies on interoperability issues and on releasing datasets in a new platform with uniform open formats is under way.[Note 205: Ibid.] In trying to improve the legal framework[Note 206: The legal framework that governs Geospatial Information in Greece (in Greek), http://www.inspire.okxe.gr/images/_3882_2010____.pdf] the Ministry of Environment has started drafting a ministerial decision to require public agencies to release their geospatial datasets on the website for urban planning[Note 207: Vassilis Gekas, Ministry of Environment, telephone interview with IRM researchers, September 2018.] (e-poleodomia.gr).  

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

Prior to this commitment the only available platform for citizens to access geospatial information in open formats was geodata.gov.gr, a civil society initiative. This commitment tried to create a common policy for all public agencies and coordinate its implementation to streamline the release of open geospatial data and improve the quality. The Ministry has not fulfilled the commitment to coordinate the policy for releasing open geo-data. Therefore, there have been no changes in access to information.

Carried Forward?

As a new action plan has not yet been released, it remains unclear whether this commitment will be included. To increase the quantity and quality of openly available geospatial information across public sector agencies annually, the Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with the Ministry of Administrative Reconstruction, could put forward a plan with concrete and measurable actions. Such a plan could focus on prioritizing specific datasets in accordance with urgent and well defined social or economic problems, such as the issue of civil protection from forest fires that came up in July 2018.[Note 208: EU Open Data Portal, “Forest Fires in Attika, Greece (2018-07-24)”, http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/dataset/fce1a312-e90b-448e-9188-e962f6ac24a8] Also, the government could benefit by cooperating with civil society to advance open geo-data initiatives like the Hellenic Data Service and the geodata.gov.gr website. CSOs such as the Athena Research Center, Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS), and Open Knowledge Greece could be part of a common effort to co-create a possible future commitment to address this issue.[Note 209: Despina Mitropoulou, General Director of Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS), telephone interview with IRM researcher, 21 October 2018.

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Greece's Commitments

  1. Framework law on Open & Participative Governance

    GR0031, 2016, Capacity Building

  2. Participation in the Assessment of the Public Sector

    GR0032, 2016, Capacity Building

  3. Publicity of Organisational Charts & Entities of the Public Sector

    GR0033, 2016, E-Government

  4. Accountability and Settlement of Disputes between the citizens and the Public Sector

    GR0034, 2016, Legislation & Regulation

  5. Guide and Standardization for the provision of Services & for Procedures per Service/entity

    GR0035, 2016, Capacity Building

  6. Improvement of the open deliberation procedure

    GR0036, 2016, Capacity Building

  7. National Register of Line Managers of the Public Administration (Register)

    GR0037, 2016, Capacity Building

  8. Implementation of the assessment of employees and services and control methods

    GR0038, 2016, Capacity Building

  9. Implementation of a System for the Selection of Managers

    GR0039, 2016, Capacity Building

  10. Digital Repository for Pubic Administration Studies

    GR0040, 2016, Capacity Building

  11. Provision of Open Cultural Data

    GR0041, 2016, E-Government

  12. Geospatial Maritime Data

    GR0042, 2016, E-Government

  13. Ship/Company and Seafarer Registers

    GR0043, 2016, E-Government

  14. Marine and Maritime Activity

    GR0044, 2016, E-Government

  15. Starred commitment Public Property Open Data

    GR0045, 2016, E-Government

  16. KPI’s for the implementation of Public and EU Financed Projects

    GR0046, 2016, E-Government

  17. Data and Statistics for Greek National Exams

    GR0047, 2016, E-Government

  18. Protocol Digitization

    GR0048, 2016, E-Government

  19. Informative Actions on open data for young people in Secondary and higher Education

    GR0049, 2016, Education

  20. Open Education

    GR0050, 2016, Capacity Building

  21. Provision of open data for Justice

    GR0051, 2016, E-Government

  22. Enhanced statistical data of justice open to the public

    GR0052, 2016, E-Government

  23. Open provision of Geo-data

    GR0053, 2016, E-Government

  24. Open-Participatory Budget

    GR0054, 2016, Fiscal Transparency

  25. Regional Council Platform (Open Regional Council)

    GR0055, 2016, E-Government

  26. Open - Participatory Budget

    GR0056, 2016, E-Government

  27. Capture and Evaluation Platform for Regional Technical Projects

    GR0057, 2016, E-Government

  28. City Dashboard

    GR0058, 2016, E-Government

  29. Online Consultation Platform

    GR0059, 2016, E-Government

  30. Open Data Index for cities and local administrations

    GR0060, 2016, E-Government

  31. Linked, Open and Participatory Budgets

    GR0061, 2016, E-Government

  32. School of data for public servants

    GR0062, 2016, Capacity Building

  33. The collaborative wikification of public services procedures

    GR0063, 2016, Capacity Building

  34. Strengthening openness and accessibility of the Parliament

    GR0064, 2016, Capacity Building

  35. Institutional and technological upgrading of Transparency Program

    GR0012, 2014, E-Government

  36. Public participation in decision making

    GR0013, 2014, Capacity Building

  37. Integration of PSI Directive on the re-use of public sector information

    GR0014, 2014, E-Government

  38. Regulatory amendments for the management and provision of open data

    GR0015, 2014, Capacity Building

  39. Implementation of platform for central distribution of public open data

    GR0016, 2014, E-Government

  40. Provision of open geospatial data

    GR0017, 2014, E-Government

  41. Provision of open cultural data

    GR0018, 2014, Legislation & Regulation

  42. Provision of open data for offshore companies

    GR0019, 2014, E-Government

  43. Open provision of Public Sector critical data sets

    GR0020, 2014, E-Government

  44. Open invitations for filling posts in the public sector

    GR0021, 2014, E-Government

  45. Public administration organizational chart publication

    GR0022, 2014, Capacity Building

  46. Coordination and monitoring of Open Government policy

    GR0023, 2014, Audits and Controls

  47. Reorganization of inspectorate bodies and strategic alliance development against corruption

    GR0024, 2014, Anti-Corruption Institutions

  48. Tracking changes on bills (from submission to voting by Plenum)

    GR0025, 2014, E-Government

  49. Usability and functionality improvements of the ‘Parliamentary Transparency’ section of the Hellenic Parliament website

    GR0026, 2014, E-Government

  50. Improvement of the Hellenic Parliament Website and implementation of new standards-technologies

    GR0027, 2014, E-Government

  51. Provision of historical parliamentary documents to the public

    GR0028, 2014, E-Government

  52. Enhancement of Social Media Policy in the Hellenic Parliament

    GR0029, 2014, E-Government

  53. On line provision of Exhibitions

    GR0030, 2014, Capacity Building

  54. Increase number of legislative acts going through online deliberation

    GR0001, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  55. Capitalize on citizen comments and suggestions

    GR0002, 2012, Public Participation

  56. Operate central e-procurement information system

    GR0003, 2012, E-Government

  57. Operate central ERP information system

    GR0004, 2012, E-Government

  58. Operate central HRMS information system

    GR0005, 2012, E-Government

  59. Open data regarding prices, as collected by Prices Observatory

    GR0006, 2012, Open Data

  60. Resolve legal issues regarding state geo-data

    GR0007, 2012, Land & Spatial Planning

  61. Offer additional taxation data

    GR0008, 2012, Fiscal Transparency

  62. Augment functionality of the Transparency Program

    GR0009, 2012, E-Government

  63. Publicise Public Sector procurement information

    GR0010, 2012, E-Government

  64. Enable open, transparent and safeguarded document circulation

    GR0011, 2012, E-Government