With one click, citizens can now give their consent through the Gov.gr Wallet for the digital extraction and distribution of their data.

In fact, the first application of providing consent involves taking insurance policy of a vehicle, which was presented by the Ministers of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou and Infrastructure and Transport Christos Staikouras, the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Christos Dimas, and the President of the Union of Greek Insurance Companies, Alexandros Sarrigeorgiou, at a press conference held at the Ministry of Digital Governance.

With the new digital service of Gov.gr Wallet, citizens will give their explicit consent for the release of their necessary data to public and private entities. In this way, they will be able to transact directly and easily, allowing the extraction and disposal of their specific data on a case-by-case basis.

In this way, the daily life of citizens is greatly facilitated, as they will be able to complete procedures from their mobile phone, without having to circulate documents, either in paper or digital form.

In the case of taking out a vehicle insurance policy, the process is also accelerated for the insurance companies, as they will receive with absolute security and validity the necessary data of the citizen and the vehicle to be insured, by drawing from the public registers that are already registered.

It should be noted that the citizen will give his/her consent at each step of the process both for the extraction of his/her data and for their provision to the insurance company with which he/she has chosen to contract.

The process

– Initially, the citizen will contact the insurance company with which he or she wishes to contract a vehicle insurance policy.

– The insurance company, after recording the citizen’s desire to use the new digital service through Gov.gr Wallet, will request the basic details to start the process. These details are the VAT number, the citizen’s full name and the registration number of the vehicle he/she wishes to insure and owns.

– He will then receive a notification (push notification) on his mobile phone from the Gov.gr Wallet through which he will be informed that the specific company and for the specific purpose he has requested, requests the availability of the necessary data, namely vehicle license, driver’s license and owner’s data.

– The citizen, if he wishes to proceed, will first give his consent to the “extraction and display” of his data to be transmitted and then check its accuracy.

– He will then grant or withhold his consent to the transmission of this data to the insurance company’s information system.

Alternatively, citizens will be able to grant their consent beyond the Gov.gr Wallet through an application to be developed for this purpose on gov.gr.

The next steps for the gov.gr wallet

It is worth noting that at the next stage the service will be extended to other transactions of citizens with public and private entities, including car rental, contracting with energy and telecommunications providers, as well as registration in nurseries.

The service is implemented by the National Network of Infrastructures for Technology and Research (EDYTE SA – GRNET), a body of the Ministry of Digital Governance, while the required data will be obtained through the Interoperability Center of the General Secretariat for Information Systems and Digital Governance.

The Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou said: “Our commitment to a state that respects citizens and wants to earn their trust is put into practice every day, with services like this one that comes to do away with certificates, paperwork and unnecessary visits or sending documents. It is not only the service that we have presented today that is important, but it is above all the fact that it is the basis for how we see the next day in the communication between the citizen and the State. In how the abolition of certificates, which we have already talked about and already legislated for, can technically be implemented. The launch is today with the consent to take out an insurance policy through Gov.gr Wallet. Citizens save time, respectively both insurance companies and the Greek State save valuable resources, while the transparency of the procedures is enhanced. In the new digital Greece, we are moving into a new era, the era of moving data rather than documents to complete procedures and transactions, with the aim of improving the lives of citizens and businesses on a daily basis. This is what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is calling for and what society as a whole expects from the Ministry of Digital Governance.”

Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Christos Staikouras said: “The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport was the first to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Digital Governance in January 2020. With a joint and coordinated effort, will, plan and vision, we have managed to bring many projects to fruition. Today we are taking another important step. Indeed, in an extremely critical area directly related to road safety. That of vehicle insurance. The new digital service allows owners to proceed, easily and quickly, with the insurance of their vehicles, through the electronic provision of vehicle data to insurance companies. We hope that the operation of the new service, in addition to facilitating citizens, will contribute to increasing the rate of vehicle insurance, an issue that has long plagued the Greek market, with serious consequences for people and companies, especially when accidents occur. In the same direction, we are working with all relevant Ministries to complete the puzzle of digital services, which offer the public administration a valuable database. Really valuable, not only because it simplifies services, but also because it provides us with accurate and qualitative information, which is necessary for proper decision-making, the formulation and implementation of effective policies.”

The Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Christos Dimas said : “A very important reform that for the first time unites the bases of the State’s ties. In this way we will tackle the problem of uninsured vehicles as a whole, check unpaid road tax and identify vehicles that have not passed the MOT inspection. In other words, we will no longer wait for a random, on-the-spot check by the traffic police to impose the fine, but this will be triggered automatically, following regular, electronic data cross-checking that will be carried out. In addition, with the cross-checking of vehicle data, we believe that we will have fewer accidents as a result of the absence of a technical inspection, so we will also make a substantial contribution to this major social issue of road accidents and to improving road safety. This will have a significant impact on the protection of the environment, particularly in terms of reducing emissions of pollutants from uninspected vehicles. We are, of course, also contributing to an increase in State revenue, due to the increase in the number of insurance policies, but also to the increase we expect from the payment of traffic taxes. This law also significantly reduces the number of cases in court, as uninsured vehicles will be significantly reduced. At the same time, the law-abiding and consistent with his obligations citizen will feel that at last the State is working in this field and does not turn a blind eye to lawlessness through its absence.”

The President of the Union of Insurance Companies of Greece, Alexandros Sarrigeorgiou said: “The electronic access of insurance companies to information and data of the vehicle registration and driving licence, which will be done with the consent of the customer for the purpose of taking out vehicle insurance, is an important step towards improving the services we offer to our policyholders. Procedures will be faster and more efficient, reducing bureaucracy and enhancing transparency and competitiveness.”