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Greece

Open Rural Development Data (GR0066)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Greece Action Plan 2019-2022

Action Plan Cycle: 2019

Status: Active

Institutions

Lead Institution: Ministry of Rural Development and Food

Support Institution(s): NA

Policy Areas

Access to Information, E-Government, Land Rights & Spatial Planning, Open Data, Public Service Delivery

IRM Review

IRM Report: Greece Design Report 2019-2021

Starred: Pending IRM Review

Early Results: Pending IRM Review

Design i

Verifiable: Yes

Relevant to OGP Values: Access to Information

Potential Impact:

Implementation i

Completion: Pending IRM Review

Description

Commitment 2: Open access to data of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food

Current situation
The information is now covered by Law 4305/2014 on the «Open access and re-use of documents,
information and public sector data, amendment of Law 3448/2006 (Α΄ 57), adaptation of national
legislation to the provisions of Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council,
further strengthening of the transparency, regulation of issues regarding the recruitment competition
of the National School of Public Administration and Local Government and other provisions» (Official
Gazette Α’ 237/31.10.2014), with the differentiations provided for under the Directive regarding
libraries, museums and archives, and a specific provisions regarding the protection of cultural
heritage.

Description of Commitment
A wealth of data falling within the scope of Law 4305/2014 is available to the Ministry of Rural
Development and Food and its supervised entities and will be made available for re-use in order to
contribute to the development and participation of citizens.

OGP Principles
Access to public information

Implementation entities, stakeholders

Implementation: Ministry of Rural Development and Food
Cooperation with supervised entities.

Contact details: Ministry of Rural Development and Food, Directorate for Administrative Organisation
and Supervision of Legal Entities

Objective
1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets.
2) Integration of new datasets.
3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food for data publication.
4) Improvement of the quality of datasets.
5) Open data release decisions
6) Upgrading of digital applications and provision of additional datasets

Key milestones - Timetable
Milestone Completion
1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets.
2) Integration of new datasets.
3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food for data publication.
4) Improvement of the quality of datasets.
5) Open data release decisions
6) Upgrading of digital applications and provision of additional datasets

IRM Midterm Status Summary

2. Open access to data of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food

Main Objective

The published NAP mentions (p.9) the main objective for this commitment as follows:

"Description of Commitment: A wealth of data falling within the scope of Law 4305/2014 is available to the Ministry of Rural Development and Food and its supervised entities and will be made available for re-use in order to contribute to the development and participation of citizens."

"Objectives: 1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets.

2) Integration of new datasets.

3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food for data publication.

4) Improvement of the quality of datasets.

5) Open data release decisions.

6) Upgrading of digital applications and provision of additional datasets."

Milestones

The published NAP mentions (p.9-10) the milestones for this commitment as follows:

"1) Anonymisation and creation of new datasets.

2) Integration of new datasets.

3) Mobilisation of entities of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food for data publication.

4) Improvement of the quality of datasets.

5) Open data release decisions

6) Upgrading of digital applications and provision of additional datasets."

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Greece's action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Greece_Action-Plan_2019-2021_EN.pdf, p.9-17.

IRM Design Report Assessment

Verifiable:

Yes

Relevant:

Yes

Access to Information

Potential impact:

None

Commitment analysis

This commitment aims to publish data held by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food (MRDF), which includes datasets related to budget and fiscal reporting, awarding of tenders, operational approval decisions, livestock and plant data, veterinary information, and food and agricultural data.

The commitment is verifiable, as it clearly states that 49 datasets will be published in 2019. It is unclear however what datasets will be released in 2020, and is not clear about the process to be used to identify these datasets. According to the information collected from interviews with lead contacts, a part of these datasets was already published in previous release decisions and periodically updated. The commitment has sufficient relevance to the Access to Information OGP value, as it could lead the government to disclose more data (milestones 1, 2 and 5) and improve the quality of the information disclosed to the public (milestone 4). [10]

Published data from the MRDF are spread across data.gov.gr (containing more than 130 open datasets published by MRDF as of May 2019) [11] and MRDF's own institutional website (where more than 80 open datasets have been made available as of May 2019) [12]. Much of the published information includes legislation, guidelines and forms, and lists of agricultural machinery and animals along with fishing vessels.

The official website of the MRDF [13] contains one published report on the lead agency's open data policy and practice [14] and a section on published data policies. [15] The European Data Portal Open Data Maturity in Europe Report 2018 [16] lists open data practice of MRDF as "a best practice given the good quality of datasets and robust implementation of open data policy". [17] The ministry's open data policy refers to procedures for ensuring the quality of the data published, whereas the published data policies section contains two additional guides on (a) confidentiality and personal data protection rules [18] and (b) procedures for published data updates. [19] The latter report sets definitions and rules for annual/multi-annual revisions and updates of published statistical data.

MRDF identified 180 data sets by MRDF and some 150 data sets by supervised entities related to agriculture, veterinarians, fishery and food as needing work done on anonymization before publishing. These datasets are apart from the ones identified in the action plan, which are anonymized already. Concerning milestone 3, supervised entities of the ministry already (prior to the action plan) started documenting and evaluating data for opening and so are expected to continue this on a yearly basis. MRDF clarified that the process for updating and improving the quality of the datasets (milestone 4) was already put in place prior to release of the action plan. MRDF clarified that it had made four open data release decisions before the action plan was adopted, and there had been 16 open data release decisions by MRDF-supervised entities. There were also around 30 e-services already made available by MRDF (milestone 6).

Concerning the rationale behind choosing datasets to open, MRDF mentioned that these choices are based on reasoning about how many stakeholders would benefit from opening each dataset but still stated that no relevant stakeholders outside the public sector have been involved in this process. MRDF mentioned, however, that there are some plans to include other stakeholders but mostly in the context of consultations for new regulations. Non-governmental stakeholder interviews [20] revealed that datasets like the ones included in this commitment on types of sheep or authorised agricultural products and producers may be far from the needs of policy areas and citizens and in fact seem to emanate instead from the internal bureaucratic organisation of data processes and files rather than from identified added-value needs of external stakeholders.

The potential impact of the commitment's milestones and of the commitment as a whole is difficult to assess and thus, despite the large amount of data to be released, it is coded as None. It is unclear how the commitment will respond to the needs of citizens and the agricultural sector as per this commitment's objective. It should be noted, in this respect, that the open data demand side of the agricultural sector in Greece remains at its infancy. The Panhellenic Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives website [21] lists no documents on open data and only a handful of documents on statistics; the website of the Greek Open Technologies alliance lists a few announcements for open data infrastructures for the agricultural sector, [22] whereas the data.gov.gr space of MRDF lists only two followers. [23] This, in the IRM researcher's view, is also an indication of a shortcoming, on behalf of MRDF, to make known its open data offerings to the agricultural sector and thus spur demand. It is noted, in this respect, that in an interview question about eventual dissemination plans, MRDF responded for internal (within the ministry) dissemination only. It is unclear how the activities of this commitment could improve or change current open data practices in the ministry or its agencies. At the same time, the milestones do not constitute any step forward beyond what is already mandatory according to legislation. The commitment could strive for some more important impact if it were to address publishing data on issues which clearly address problematic areas. For example, desktop research [24] revealed a number of topical issues for this ministry's domain of responsibility, for which publishing open data could have value and could help to improve policies and processes. An indicative example is information relating to the policies, calls for applications and decisions on agricultural investment plans.

[10] The commitment meets some basic requirements for this value as (a) it pertains to government-held information; (b) it provides open access to information (milestone 5); (c) it is not restricted to data but pertains to all information (e.g. decisions); and (d) it promotes transparency of government decision making and carrying out of basic functions. Still, it is not clear whether and how the commitment meets some further basic requirements for the Access to Information value, namely(e) strive to meet the 5-Star model for Open Data design.
[11] Data sets searched through webpage http://data.gov.gr/organization and query http://data.gov.gr/organization/ypagr?q=&sort=metadata_modified+asc .
[12] See webpageshttp://www.minagric.gr/index.php/el/for-farmer-2/biologikgeorgiaktinotrofia/388-statistikabiologika and http://www.minagric.gr/index.php/el/xrisimewplirofories-2/arxeia-georg-pro/643-statistikabiologikaarxeio .
[13] http://www.minagric.gr , as mentioned in the official catalogue of the Hellenic Parliament, at https://www.hellenicparliament.gr/en/news/links/ministries .
[14] Quality Policy for MRDF and Supervised Entities Statistics, MRDF, May 29, 2019, available at http://www.minagric.gr/images/stories/docs/ypoyrgeio/STATISTIKA/politikh_piotitas_ypaat.pdf .
[15] http://www.minagric.gr/index.php/el/the-ministry-2/statistikes-tekmhrioshs/8469-politikes190619-2 .
[16] Available at https://www.europeandataportal.eu/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n4_2018.pdf .
[17] Greece country factsheet, State of Play on Open Data 2018, available at https://www.europeandataportal.eu/sites/default/files/country-factsheet_greece_2018.pdf , p.3.
[18] Statistical Secrecy Policy for MRDF and Supervised Entities as Parts of the Greek Statistical System, available at http://www.minagric.gr/images/stories/docs/ypoyrgeio/STATISTIKA/politikh_statistikou_aporitou_ypaat.pdf .
[19] MRDF Updates Policy, available at http://www.minagric.gr/images/stories/docs/ypoyrgeio/STATISTIKA/politiki_anatheoriseon_ypaat.pdf .
[20] P.Georgiadis, academic expert on electronic governance and former public sector official (Secretary General for Information Systems and Electronic Governance), and S. Loucopoulos, CSO actor (VouliWatch).
[21] https://www.neapaseges.gr/
[22] Cf. search query https://opendata.ellak.gr/?s=%CE%B3%CE%B5%CF%89%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%AF%CE%B1 for the most recent ones.
[23] http://data.gov.gr/organization/about/ypagr
[24] Concerning Commitment 2 - Open access to data of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, news headlines concerning the lead Ministry have been desk-searched for the 12-month period prior to action plan release, namely the period from May 2018 up to April 2019. Headline search has been run on a number of Greek investigative journalism news outlets (Protagon.gr, The Press Project, Documento, TVXS) and on the Google News service, using the following queries, respectively: https://cutt.ly/3p5JxPT ; https://cutt.ly/Cp5JTtN ; https://cutt.ly/Np5JLN3 ; https://cutt.ly/9p5J02a ; and https://cutt.ly/pp5KwK4 . The headlines harvested have been thematically encoded and clustered for topical issues concerning the lead ministry's domain of responsibility, and the following list of identified topical issues has been produced (numbers in parentheses refer to partial with respect to total harvested results): agricultural investment plans support (policies, calls, decisions) (9/31); farmer subsidies (policies,calls, decisions) (5/31); food products branding and certification (policies,decisions) (3/31); personnel recruitment (calls, deadlines, decisions) (3/31); planned policy changes and new policy decisions (5/31); and responses to farmer mobilizations and demands (6/31). These issues are not listed in any specific order, but they all correspond to topics which (a) fall under the lead Ministry's domain of responsibility; (b) meet the public's interest; and (c) are often the subject of ad hoc, opaque or problematic treatment, as testified by the news harvested. In this respect, releasing open data on these topics would be useful for the public, and could bring forward a positive impact in improving the relevant processes and policies of the lead Ministry.
[25] UNHCR https://reporting.unhcr.org/node/14851?y=2018#year Last accessed 11/09/2020

Commitments

  1. Open Education Data

    GR0065, 2019, Access to Information

  2. Open Rural Development Data

    GR0066, 2019, Access to Information

  3. Open Immigration Data

    GR0067, 2019, Access to Information

  4. Open National Defense Data

    GR0068, 2019, Access to Information

  5. Open Ministry of Interior Data

    GR0069, 2019, Access to Information

  6. Open Administrative Reconstruction Data

    GR0070, 2019, Access to Information

  7. Open Economic Data

    GR0071, 2019, Access to Information

  8. Open Local Government Data

    GR0072, 2019, Access to Information

  9. Open Justice Data

    GR0073, 2019, Access to Information

  10. Open Environmental Data

    GR0074, 2019, Access to Information

  11. Open Culture and Sports Data

    GR0075, 2019, Access to Information

  12. Framework Law on Open & Participative Governance

    GR0031, 2016, Capacity Building

  13. Participation in the Assessment of the Public Sector

    GR0032, 2016, Capacity Building

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

    GR0033, 2016, E-Government

  15. Accountability and Settlement of Disputes Between the Citizens and the Public Sector

    GR0034, 2016, Legislation & Regulation

  16. Guide and Standardization for the Provision of Services & for Procedures Per Service/Entity

    GR0035, 2016, Capacity Building

  17. Improvement of the Open Deliberation Procedure

    GR0036, 2016, Capacity Building

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

    GR0037, 2016, Capacity Building

  19. Implementation of the Assessment of Employees and Services and Control Methods

    GR0038, 2016, Capacity Building

  20. Implementation of a System for the Selection of Managers

    GR0039, 2016, Capacity Building

  21. Digital Repository for Pubic Administration Studies

    GR0040, 2016, Capacity Building

  22. Provision of Open Cultural Data

    GR0041, 2016, Access to Information

  23. Geospatial Maritime Data

    GR0042, 2016, Access to Information

  24. Ship/Company and Seafarer Registers

    GR0043, 2016, Access to Information

  25. Marine and Maritime Activity

    GR0044, 2016, Access to Information

  26. Starred commitment Public Property Open Data

    GR0045, 2016, Access to Information

  27. KPI’s for the Implementation of Public and EU Financed Projects

    GR0046, 2016, E-Government

  28. Data and Statistics for Greek National Exams

    GR0047, 2016, E-Government

  29. Protocol Digitization

    GR0048, 2016, E-Government

  30. Informative Actions on Open Data for Young People in Secondary and Higher Education

    GR0049, 2016, Access to Information

  31. Open Education

    GR0050, 2016, Access to Information

  32. Provision of Open Data for Justice

    GR0051, 2016, Access to Information

  33. Enhanced Statistical Data of Justice Open to the Public

    GR0052, 2016, E-Government

  34. Open Provision of Geo-Data

    GR0053, 2016, Access to Information

  35. Open-Participatory Budget

    GR0054, 2016, Access to Information

  36. Regional Council Platform (Open Regional Council)

    GR0055, 2016, E-Government

  37. Open - Participatory Budget

    GR0056, 2016, E-Government

  38. Capture and Evaluation Platform for Regional Technical Projects

    GR0057, 2016, E-Government

  39. City Dashboard

    GR0058, 2016, Access to Information

  40. Online Consultation Platform

    GR0059, 2016, E-Government

  41. Open Data Index for Cities and Local Administrations

    GR0060, 2016, Access to Information

  42. Linked, Open and Participatory Budgets

    GR0061, 2016, E-Government

  43. School of Data for Public Servants

    GR0062, 2016, Access to Information

  44. The Collaborative Wikification of Public Services Procedures

    GR0063, 2016, Capacity Building

  45. Strengthening Openness and Accessibility of the Parliament

    GR0064, 2016, Access to Information

  46. Institutional and Technological Upgrading of Transparency Program

    GR0012, 2014, Access to Information

  47. Public Participation in Decision Making

    GR0013, 2014, Capacity Building

  48. Integration of PSI Directive on the Re-Use of Public Sector Information

    GR0014, 2014, Access to Information

  49. Regulatory Amendments for the Management and Provision of Open Data

    GR0015, 2014, Access to Information

  50. Implementation of Platform for Central Distribution of Public Open Data

    GR0016, 2014, Access to Information

  51. Provision of Open Geospatial Data

    GR0017, 2014, Access to Information

  52. Provision of Open Cultural Data

    GR0018, 2014, Access to Information

  53. Provision of Open Data for Offshore Companies

    GR0019, 2014, Access to Information

  54. Open Provision of Public Sector Critical Data Sets

    GR0020, 2014, Access to Information

  55. Open Invitations for Filling Posts in the Public Sector

    GR0021, 2014, E-Government

  56. Public Administration Organizational Chart Publication

    GR0022, 2014, Capacity Building

  57. Coordination and Monitoring of Open Government Policy

    GR0023, 2014, Anti-Corruption

  58. Reorganization of Inspectorate Bodies and Strategic Alliance Development Against Corruption

    GR0024, 2014, Anti-Corruption

  59. Tracking Changes on Bills (From Submission to Voting by Plenum)

    GR0025, 2014, E-Government

  60. Usability and Functionality Improvements of the ‘Parliamentary Transparency’ Section of the Hellenic Parliament Website

    GR0026, 2014, E-Government

  61. Improvement of the Hellenic Parliament Website and Implementation of New Standards-Technologies

    GR0027, 2014, Access to Information

  62. Provision of Historical Parliamentary Documents to the Public

    GR0028, 2014, E-Government

  63. Enhancement of Social Media Policy in the Hellenic Parliament

    GR0029, 2014, E-Government

  64. On Line Provision of Exhibitions

    GR0030, 2014, Capacity Building

  65. Increase Number of Legislative Acts Going Through Online Deliberation

    GR0001, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  66. Capitalize on Citizen Comments and Suggestions

    GR0002, 2012, Public Participation

  67. Operate Central e-Procurement Information System

    GR0003, 2012, Anti-Corruption

  68. Operate Central ERP Information System

    GR0004, 2012, E-Government

  69. Operate Central HRMS Information System

    GR0005, 2012, E-Government

  70. Open Data Regarding Prices, as Collected by Prices Observatory

    GR0006, 2012, Access to Information

  71. Resolve Legal Issues Regarding State Geo-Data

    GR0007, 2012, Land Rights & Spatial Planning

  72. Offer Additional Taxation Data

    GR0008, 2012, Fiscal Openness

  73. Augment Functionality of the Transparency Program

    GR0009, 2012, E-Government

  74. Publicise Public Sector Procurement Information

    GR0010, 2012, Anti-Corruption

  75. Enable Open, Transparent and Safeguarded Document Circulation

    GR0011, 2012, E-Government

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