Digital overhaul: Over 1.2 billion public documents move into a unified state system by 2026

The largest public digitization project in Greece is rapidly advancing

Greece is moving ahead with an unprecedented effort to digitize more than 1.2 billion pages of critical public archives. Backed by nearly €750 million in funding from the Recovery and Resilience Facility and national resources, the Ministry of Digital Governance is orchestrating a reform that is set to reshape the country’s administrative landscape.

The goal is ambitious: all major state archives —Justice, Health, the Cadastre, Migration, Urban Planning, Shipping and more— will soon exist in a single, structured, and easily accessible digital form. This is not just scanning paper. It is the creation of a new, unified digital backbone for the state, enabling advanced analytics, interoperability and even future AI-powered public services.

Where the project stands today

Progress is already impressive. A total of 817.5 million pages have been digitized, representing 68% of the entire project. Key milestones include:

• Justice sector: 167 million pages digitized – 55% completion.
• General State Archives: 41.5 million pages – 75% completed.
• Migration & Asylum: 70 million pages – 87% completed.
• Cadastre & Land Registries: 504 million pages – 84% completion.
• Urban Planning Archives: 28 million pages – 65% progress.
• Ministry of Shipping: Fully completed.
• Secure storage of physical archives: Completed across 1.4 million file-boxes.

The Health sector project is in the pilot-scanning stage in seven hospitals in Attica, ahead of full-scale implementation.

What this means for citizens

A process that used to be slow, fragmented, and heavily paper-based becomes a fast, transparent, and seamless experience.

Citizens will no longer need to:

• visit multiple offices,
• wait weeks for a file to be located,
• rely on fragile or incomplete documents.

Instead, all records will be searchable, organized and instantly retrievable from modern digital systems.

Just as important is the protection of Greece’s administrative and historical memory. Countless documents stored for decades —many damaged by humidity, time or improper storage— are now permanently preserved, ensuring future generations can access material of legal, cultural, and historical value.

A smarter, faster and truly modern state

This digitization project is far more than a technological upgrade. It lays the foundation for a new era of public-sector efficiency. Once digitized, state data can be connected, analyzed and leveraged to:

• design better public policies,
• accelerate administrative procedures,
• improve service delivery across sectors.

As the Minister of Digital Governance emphasizes, Greece is for the first time building a large, high-quality data reservoir, capable of dramatically reducing bureaucracy and supporting next-generation AI applications in government.

By 2026, Greece will possess one of the most advanced and comprehensive digital public archives in Europe.

Source: pagenews.gr