Europaudvalget 2021
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EUROPEAN
COMMISSION
Brussels, 2.6.2021
SWD(2021) 528 final
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT
Enhanced Surveillance Report - Greece, June 2021
Accompanying the document
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
Enhanced Surveillance update - Greece, June 2021
{COM(2021) 528 final}
EN
EN
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STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT
Progress with the implementation of due specific commitments and relevant continuous commitments (*) given to the Eurogroup
(Annex
to the Eurogroup statement,
22 June 2018) (
1
)
Commitment
State of play and next steps
(*) Fiscal.
Achieve a primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP over the The General Escape Clause was activated in agreement between the
medium-term.
European Commission and the European Council in March 2020 and
remains active in 2021 as indicated in the Annual Sustainable Growth
Strategy 2021. The General Escape Clause allows for a temporary
departure from the budgetary requirements, including Greece’s fiscal
targets monitored under enhanced surveillance, provided that this does
not endanger fiscal sustainability in the medium term. In March 2021, the
Commission adopted a Communication suggesting that Member States
with high debt levels as Greece should pursue prudent fiscal policies in
2022, while preserving nationally-financed investment and making use of
grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to fund additional high-
quality investment projects and structural reforms. On the basis of the
Commission’s 2021 spring forecast, on 2 June the
Commission
considered that the conditions for the continued application of the general
escape clause in 2022 and its deactivation as of 2023 are met. Country-
specific situations will continue to be taken into account after the
deactivation of the general escape clause (
2
).
(
1
) The report was prepared taking into account information available up to the cut-off date 27 May 2021.
(
2
) See ‘Communication from the Commission on Economic policy coordination in 2021: overcoming COVID-19,
supporting the recovery and modernising our
economy’, Brussels, 2.6.2021, COM(2021)500 final.
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Public financial management.
Complete the chart of accounts for
the central administration by implementing the fund and functional
classifications in the 2022 State budget by mid-2021. It is noted that
the implementation of the fund classification is subject to a provision
of technical assistance.
State of play and next steps
The implementation of functional classification is progressing. It will
be fully completed by April 2022, at a broader basis than initially
envisaged.
The necessary IT specifications to support the first phase of
the functional classification (1
st
level) in both the investment and non-
investment budgets have been completed. Work ensuring interoperability
of the public investment IT payment system with the central IT system is
ongoing and is assisted by technical support provided by the European
Commission. The authorities prepared a road map with a timetable for the
completion of the functional classification by end of April 2022.
According to the roadmap, the 1
st
level of the functional classification
will be completed by October 2021 and published in November in the
context of the preparation of the 2022 budget, while the 2
nd
level is
planned to be completed by April 2022. The European institutions
welcome the fact that the authorities intend to apply the 1
st
level of the
functional classification, to be presented in 2022 budget, also to general
government entities. As regards the accounting reform, the new accrual
accounting framework is already being implemented in the central
administration and will be further enhanced with the rollout to cover all
general government entities as planned in the Recovery and Resilience
Plan.
According to February 2021 data, the stock of net arrears reached
€1.1 billion, up by €96
million compared to the December 2020 level
The authorities will implement the arrears clearance plan and avoid
presented in the last report.
The stock of non-pension arrears increased
the accumulation of new arrears.
to €614 million in February compared to €485
million in December 2020,
while the backlog of unprocessed pension claims decreased slightly to
Complete the implementation of reforms identified by the Hellenic
€461 million, compared with €494
million in December 2020. The
Court of Auditors.
increase in the non-pension arrears was mainly observed in local
(*) Arrears.
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State of play and next steps
governments and extra-budgetary funds and is attributed to the lack of
liquidity due to lower revenues due to the outbreak of the pandemic. To
tackle the issue, the authorities decided to provide additional liquidity to
the entities facing a shortage, which will be earmarked to arrears
clearance. Another factor behind the increase in arrears are seasonal
fluctuations in the sector of hospitals (see below).
The authorities prepared a comprehensive analysis of the drivers of
the accumulation of arrears, which identified additional factors out of
the direct control of the government.
First, the analysis pointed to
seasonal fluctuations within the year in specific subsectors, such as in the
tax administration and hospitals, which reflect the annual submission of
tax refunds claims or the hospitals’ procurement processes. Seasonal
effects
average out throughout the year but can account for up to €163
million (slightly less than 0.1% of GDP) at a specific point in time.
Second, human factors (e.g. temporary shortages in personnel, leaves,
etc.) and unexpected operational obstacles can justify the existence of a
minimum stock of arrears linked to rolling obligations (i.e. arrears that are
repaid but the overall stock cannot be completely cleared as new payment
obligations continue to flow in). Across all subsectors, these factors
account for
€116 million (less than 0.1% of GDP), representing a very
small fraction of each subsector’s respective accrual expenditure. Finally,
a minor additional adjustment (€21 million) will be introduced to cater for
the time lag between the realization of expenditure supported from EU
funds and the payment of the claim by the EU. Overall, the factors
mentioned above lead to a reassessment of the stock of net non-pension
arrears monitored under enhanced surveillance from €614 million to €302
million in February 2021. The European institutions consider that the
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State of play and next steps
reassessment of the stock is final and ensures the credibility and
attainability of the targets set out in the updated clearance plan.
The March 2021 update of the clearance plan aims to materially clear
non-pension arrears by June 2021, in line with the agreement
reached in the context of the 9
th
report and incorporating the
structural impediments beyond the authorities’ control mentioned
above.
Apart from the above-mentioned additional liquidity, the
authorities committed to enhance their efforts to improve the quality of
reporting, with a particular focus on expenses that should be rejected from
the Commitment Registry due to legality issues. In addition, the incentive
mechanism for the prevention of accumulation of arrears at local level,
which entered into effect in January 2021, is expected to be fully
operational by the end of second quarter of 2021. According to this
mechanism, the local governments will be obliged to submit every quarter
a list with the remaining arrears accompanied by a justification for their
non-payment and to transfer the amounts equivalent to the arrears to a
special account at the Consignment Deposits and Loan Fund (CDLF)
earmarked for arrears payment.
A number of additional measures have been adopted to accelerate the
clearance of pension arrears with full clearance planned for
end-2021.
The authorities adopted additional measures including the
introduction of an advance payment to those who have submitted a
pension application, the increase of personnel dealing with manual
processing and the creation of a Task Force which has the expertise to
propose IT and administrative changes as well as legal amendments
which will accelerate/facilitate the pension clearance.
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State of play and next steps
The implementation
of the Hellenic Court of Auditors’
recommendations is underway.
The implementation of the majority of
the recommended structural reforms are now closely monitored by the
Steering Committee for arrears due to its reinforcement from ministries
responsible for the implementation of a large number of the remaining
recommendations. The Steering Committee provided a detailed progress
report, which also included the entities that do not participate in the
Steering Committee. Overall, the majority of the recommendations are
fully addressed and the implementation of the remaining ones shows
overall good progress. Delays were observed in the preparation of the
interim report from the working group responsible for simplifying the
legislative framework for the conduct of fiscal procedures given that
consultations with the General Secretariats of Fiscal Services have not
been completed yet. The consultations are seen as instrumental in
defining the required legislative amendments. However, the final report
including legislative proposals for the simplification of the fiscal
procedures and elimination of bottlenecks is expected to be completed
within the agreed timeframe, i.e. by the end of July.
The new law setting out the conceptual framework regarding the
internal control in the public administration was adopted in April
2021.
The National Transparency Authority has provided an action plan
on the roll out of internal control systems in accordance with the new law.
According to the plan, the establishment and the operationalization of
internal control units in all ministries would be completed by the end of
September 2021 while the regulatory acts, which will set the criteria for
the establishment of internal audit units in general government entities,
would be prepared by the end of the year. In addition, the evaluation of
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State of play and next steps
the public financial management component of the internal control
framework has started, with findings expected to be submitted by end-
June 2021.
Following the adoption of the supplementary wage grid, the overall
human resources reform of the Independent Authority of Public
Reach the agreed permanent staffing positions at the Independent
Revenue will come into effect as of 1 June 2021.
The authorities
Authority of Public Revenue of 12 500 by end-2019 and 13 322 by confirmed that the secondary legislation setting up a grading system will
mid-2021.
be in place prior to its launch. The number of staff of the Independent
Authority remains well below the targets set and has actually decreased
Make the end-to-end IT collection systems fully operational by mid- recently (11 736 at the end of March 2021 compared to 11 848 at the end
2021.
of 2020). The comprehensive human resources reform is expected to
reverse the trend by making it easier for the Independent Authority to
attract and retain high calibre staff. The roll-out of the reform, including
relevant verifications of salary calculations according to the new wage
grid, is expected to take place gradually from June until August 2021.
Salary differences according to the new wage grid will be paid
retroactively as of 1 June.
The end-to-end IT collection system is expected to enter a testing
phase in July and become fully operational by November 2021.
The
training of the Independent Authority’s
staff on the new IT system has
been brought forward, in order to ensure that the Independent Authority
will be in a position to fully utilise this new IT system once ready.
Tax policy.
Greece will undertake a nationwide valuation exercise of
The authorities have completed a nationwide revaluation exercise of
property tax value based on market values and will update property
property prices, including a considerable expansion of the property
tax values for ENFIA and other taxes fully in line with market
tax base from 85% to some 95% of properties and the full digitisation
of the new zones.
Through a Ministerial Decision of 18 May 2021, the
Tax administration.
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values.
State of play and next steps
new objective property values were officially adopted and published and
they will come into force on 1 January 2022 for ENFIA and all other
taxes, including Property Transfer tax and Inheritance tax.
The Authorities plan a major reform of the ENFIA property tax for
2022 based on the new property tax values.
This will entail a
comprehensive updating of the ENFIA tax base, based on the newly-
digitised value zones of the wider property tax based. The wider tax base
will allow a major reform to the ENFIA property tax system that will be
legislated by November 2021. The 2022 ENFIA tax assessment will be
brought forward to the beginning of 2022 with first payments by March
2022. ENFIA tax payments will thus be smoothed over the entire calendar
year, rather than concentrated with the income tax payments in the second
half of the year.
(*) Health care.
The authorities will complete the full offsetting and
The collection of the clawback is progressing despite delays.
For
collection of the clawback by June every year for the previous providers, the collection for 2018 and 2019 is progressing, although it
calendar year.
started only recently and after considerable delays. For these years,
respectively 5% and 8% of the clawback has currently been collected and,
of the uncollected amounts, more than 92% for both years are being
collected through instalments, the duration of which can reach 10 years in
some cases. To avoid the accumulation of such delays, the authorities
have introduced a new collection system for providers, under which 70%
of the clawback will be collected upfront on a rolling basis and the
remaining 30% through instalments and the bill introducing this new
collection method has been submitted to Parliament. For pharmaceuticals,
the delays in collection are less severe and the clawback for 2018 and
2019 are collected for approximately 80% of the overall amount. In view
of the delays in collecting the clawback, the statistical authorities decided
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State of play and next steps
to abandon the use of the clawback ceiling in fiscal recording (see the
fiscal section in the Communication).
The clawback for 2020 was quantified at €795 888€( noillimؘ
million
including high-cost
drugs( for pharmaceuticals and €280
million for
providers, which compares to, respectively, €787
million
(€869
million including high-cost
drugs( and €301 million in 2019.
While for providers the levels are rather
stable around €300 million, the
clawback on pharmaceuticals was rising consistently since 2012, with the
pace exceeding 30% per year since 2017. From 2019 to 2020, the
clawback remained stable, but this seems driven by the exclusion of the
spending for vaccines in 2020. The clawback for providers slightly
decreased over the past two years. The amounts were officially notified to
providers, making it possible for the collection to start, while for
pharmaceuticals, the collection of the first semester has already started
following a slight delay. According to the original timeline, the collection
should be almost complete up to the second semester of 2020 by June of
2021. The Ministerial Decision setting the ceilings for providers for 2021
has been signed and is expected to be published in the next days.
The clawbacks, especially for pharmaceuticals, are still on an
increasing path.
While no new structural measures have been presented
to avoid the creation of new clawbacks, progress was reported on health
technology assessments and negotiations, both of them being important
tools to increase the efficiency of spending.
Health care.
Greece will ensure the rollout of the primary health
The authorities submitted a first draft of the revised primary health
care system, in particular by opening all 240 primary health care
care law.
The preliminary draft does not cover key elements of the new
system such as the implementation of gatekeeping and the registration
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units.
State of play and next steps
procedure to achieve full population coverage. In addition, the authorities
are working on legislation defining the new organisational setup of health
centres, which will host the outstanding primary health care units
(currently approximately 100), and set out the new contractual
arrangements for family doctors. The recent call to recruit staff for the
new primary health care units has led to more than 20 000 applications.
Of these, however, only 317 were applications from doctors, which
creates a bottleneck towards the opening of new primary health care units.
The successful roll-out of the primary health care network crucially
hinges on the success of the new contractual models to attract new family
doctors and on the adoption of a revised legislative framework by the
time of the 11
th
report.
Health care.
Achieve a share of centralised procurement in total
The authorities are about to reach the 30% procurement target,
hospital expenditure of 30%.
when the value of launched tenders is considered.
Tenders for an
overall value of more than €250
million were launched in May 2021, of
which approximately a third covered tenders for pharmaceuticals. In total,
tenders for approximately €400
million have already been launched
(some of which cover both 2021 and 2022 procurements). An electronic
platform to monitor tenders is underway, and a project to upgrade
procurement systems of hospitals is envisaged (meeting both the
requirements of the National Central Authority of Health Procurements
(EKAPY) and needs of hospitals). The final draft of the legislation for the
Central Authority for will be submitted to Parliament by mid-June,
having completed public consultation, expected by mid-end May. The
law is expected to be adopted by the time of the publication of the next
report.
The Price Observatory has been reactivated and decisions for price
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State of play and next steps
changes were issued for 260 products.
The new legislation for the
Central Authority envisages a price range observatory, which will
determine the acceptable range based on criteria such as quantity,
distance, regional and product-specific characteristics.
Social welfare.
Complete the rollout of all three pillars of the Social
The nationwide rollout of the third pillar has been postponed from
Solidarity Income scheme (subsequently renamed Guaranteed
1 April to 1 June 2021, due to disruptions caused by the pandemic to
Minimum Income scheme).
some of its required steps.
Remaining preparatory work mainly concerns
a) the IT adjustments of the platform of the Government Centre for Social
Security Services (IDIKA) and its interconnection with the IT systems of
the public employment service (OAED) and the Community Centres and
b) the setting up of the implementation guide and other supporting
material. The completion of the third and last pillar of the Guaranteed
Minimum Income scheme will allow for a systematic provision of labour
market reintegration services to the beneficiaries of the guaranteed
minimum income.
Social welfare.
Review the system of subsidies for local public
Following the legislative changes and payments to the majority of
transport.
transport operators earlier in the year, the Authorities adopted the
last required legislative amendments in Article 86 of law 4796/2021 of
17 April 2021 to complete this commitment.
A Ministerial Decision (
3
)
will ensure the last required transport benefit payments will be made to
the Thessaloniki Urban Transport Organisation (OASTH) by 8 June 2021.
Social welfare.
Apply to all disability benefits the new approach for
The authorities will legislate in September 2020 to use the
disability determination based on both medical and functional
functionality-based disability assessment system to assess benefit
(
3
) Diavgeia 6NNM465ΧΘΞ-7ΜΠ.
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assessment.
State of play and next steps
eligibility in their new trial programme of personal assistance to
disabled people.
This means the new assessment scheme will be used
directly for in-kind benefit decisions from the first quarter of next year,
rather than a further pilot of the functionality system being needed. The
submission and evaluation of applications for the new in-kind benefits
using the functionality-based system will start in March 2022. The
existing medical-based assessment system will be retained for other
disability benefits.
Social welfare.
Complete the set-up of the single pension fund
The organisational setup of the single pension fund (e-EFKA) is
EFKA.
ongoing and will follow the implementation timeline for the
remaining directories.
The merging of the outstanding funds is
progressing, with the fund for bank employees (TAITEKO) recently
completed, farmers (OGA) close to completion and engineers, doctors
and lawyers (ETAA) progressing smoothly. The authorities provided a
timeline for the completion of all the 120 directories that are needed for
the finalisation of the organisational setup of e-EFKA by the fourth
quarter of 2021, which is later than initially envisaged as the process
suffers from challenges linked to the pandemic. Delays in pension awards
noted in the previous reports have not been reduced yet but the authorities
are taking actions, including staff training, to reduce the period between
filing a claim and approving the level of a pension to three months.
(*) Financial stability.
Greece will continue to implement reforms
aimed at restoring the health of the banking system, including non-
performing loans resolution efforts by ensuring the continued
effectiveness of the relevant legal framework (i.e. household and
corporate insolvency, out-of-court workout, non-performing loans
The work on the implementation of the new Insolvency Code by
1 June 2021 is on track, with the exception of the sale and lease-back
mechanism.
Following the entry into force of the framework on the
rehabilitation of companies and corporate bankruptcy on 1 March 2021,
20 out of a total of 30 ministerial decisions necessary for the
implementation of the insolvency law have been published or are pending
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sales, e-auctions) and taking all necessary actions to this effect.
State of play and next steps
publication in the Official Journal by end-May 2021. The 10 ministerial
decisions that are outstanding concern the Early Warning mechanism and
are at an advanced stage of drafting, and those related to the sale and
lease-back mechanism, which will be drafted by end-June, for adoption
by end-July 2021. Work on the relevant IT infrastructure, which involves
the Out-of-Court Workout, the Insolvency register and the vulnerable
debtors’ verification electronic platforms,
is also proceeding as planned
and is expected to be completed by 1 June 2021. In order to further
improve the functionality of the framework, a second phase of work,
allowing for the fully automated handling of applications by creditors, is
planned to be completed by the end of September 2021, while the early
warning IT platform will become operational by the end of November
2021.
The concessionary process for the set-up of the sale and lease-back
entity is expected to take significantly longer than initially expected
but will not affect the implementation of the other aspects of the
framework.
The delay is due to the addition of procedural steps prior to
the call for tenders, in line with legal requirements for concessions.
Following a call for tenders scheduled for publication in early September
2021 and the ratification of the outcome by parliament in early January
2022, the entity is expected to be in place by end-March 2022. According
to the provision of article 226 para. 2 of the Insolvency Code, the
procedures for the protection of vulnerable debtors under the sale and
lease-back mechanism will commence upon its operationalization.
The processing of the backlog of insolvency law cases has been
delayed reflecting disruptions caused by the pandemic.
As a result of
the suspension of the functioning of courts, eventually lifted on 5 April
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State of play and next steps
2021, deadlines for initial submissions of petitions and the subsequent
filings of written arguments and evidence by the parties were suspended.
As a result, submissions of above-described documents by the parties will
be due by 3 June 2021, whereupon the case files will be closed and the
procedure for the setting of a hearing date will be resumed. Moreover,
hearings that were scheduled within the suspension period were
adjourned and new hearing dates were reappointed ex officio by courts.
To avoid further delays, the authorities adopted a provision mandating the
parties to seek new hearing dates for such adjourned cases if the hearings
already appointed go beyond 30 June 2021 (
4
). The European institutions
encouraged the authorities to set a new credible yet ambitious timeline for
the completion of this commitment taking into account the delays due to
the pandemic (
5
).
The horizontal suspension of enforcement proceedings, including e-
auctions during the second tightening of the containment measures
was eventually lifted as of 5 April 2021, allowing for a gradual restart
of all enforcement steps.
It was substituted by a more targeted
suspension of auctions, evictions and foreclosures of primary residences
of debtors affected by the pandemic until the end of May 2021. This is a
positive development, as the protracted generalised freezing of all
enforcement steps, including preparatory ones, might have had an adverse
effect on
Greek banks’ efforts to accelerate the reduction of non-
(
4
)
Article 237 of law 4798/2021 (OJ Α 68/24.04.2021).
(
5
) According to data submitted by the authorities, as of 12 April 2021, 5 025 petitions for the appointment of new hearings had been filed with court secretariats and
were being processed by the latter, 18 014 petitions had been processed and notified to the parties and 11 779 petitions were withdrawn. Regarding this last
category, lack of data prevents an estimate as to the percentage of withdrawals due to lack of willingness to comply with the requirement to lift the banking secrecy.
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State of play and next steps
performing loans, as well as on servicers’ business plan targets. Most
auctions will be rescheduled after the summer, limiting thus the total
number of auctions to be conducted in 2021, to below pre-pandemic
levels.
Despite the implementation of recently legislated additional
functionality of the e-auctions platform with the uploading of
photographs and valuation reports, further action is planned to
facilitate compliance with the law and preserve the value of assets.
By
virtue of legislation passed in December 2020, building permit
infringements need to be addressed within one year of acquisition of a
property through an e-auction and not later than the end of 2025. To
enable the identification of such situations, the authorities are engaging
with the association of notaries to ensure interoperability between the e-
auctions platform and the relevant platform, as monitoring such
infringements is necessary. Furthermore, interoperability with the
cadastre platform and the electronic acquisition of data regarding the
energy efficiency requirements and the statement of no pending
obligations vis-à-vis the municipalities should be implemented as they
would be conducive to an increased security of transactions though the e-
auctions platform.
Despite delays in the preparation of the text of the revised Code of
Civil Procedure, the code is expected to be adopted in time for its
projected entry into force by mid-September 2021.
The report of the
law-drafting committee for the evaluation of the implementation of the
Code and the proposed revisions is due to be handed to the Ministry of
Justice on 4 June 2021, with a three-month delay. The draft is expected to
be finalized by mid-June 2021. The next steps (review by the General
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State of play and next steps
Secretariat for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and the public
consultation) will run in parallel and are expected to be concluded by end-
June 2021, in view of the adoption of the Code by parliament in July
2021. Despite the delay, the authorities confirmed that the revised code
will enter into force, as planned, by the start of the next judicial year in
September 2021.
The clearance of the considerable backlog of called state guarantees
has continued to fall behind schedule in the first quarter of 2021 but
structural changes are now in place for a significant acceleration.
The
delay in the first quarter of 2021 was partly due to continued
administrative delays in the recruitment process of new personnel as well
as some unforeseen events caused by the pandemic. However, new staff
is in place since early April 2021 and undergoing training, while the
interoperability of the electronic files repository with tax offices is now
fully operational. Once the new staff becomes fully operational, a
significant acceleration in the pace of clearance in the second quarter of
2021 could be expected. Moreover, the initial target of 17 additional new
permanent staff to be hired during the summer will be increased to 30,
further speeding up the processing of claims.
Preparatory work on the necessary secondary legislation to ensure
full operationalisation of the deferred tax credits framework in all
cases, including resolution, is continuing.
Labour market:
Greece will safeguard competitiveness through an
The procedure for updating the statutory minimum wage, put on
annual update of the minimum wage in line with the provisions of
hold following the outbreak of the pandemic, resumed in March 2021
Law 4172/2013.
and the new level of the minimum wage is expected to be determined
by end-July 2021.
Social and scientific partners were invited to provide
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State of play and next steps
their views as envisaged by the legislation.
Investment licensing.
Complete the investment licensing reform,
The tender for the deployment of the relevant IT system, which is
and to this end fully deploy the relevant ICT.
critical to support the new investment licencing framework has been
unblocked, and the final decision of contract award was issued on
11 May 2021.
The project will be implemented within 34 months
following the signature of the contract, which is expected shortly.
Investment licensing.
Greece will finalise inspection legislation.
The authorities adopted tools and legislation on most remaining parts
to complete the reform in the three priority areas, whilst the pending
deliverables are expected by end-May 2021.
Specifically, the
authorities adopted legislation to amend sanctions and enforcement
powers on product and food safety, whilst the respective provisions for
environmental protection are expected to be adopted by end-May 2021.
Further, the adoption of the enforcement management model on food
safety and environmental protection, in addition to secondary legislation
to set in force the remaining part of the complaint management model on
the safety of processed food is also expected by end-May 2021. Further,
the authorities recently adopted legislation to define the roles and
responsibilities of inspecting authorities for food safety.
In parallel, the authorities are progressing with the extension of the
framework in the four remaining areas, albeit slower than expected,
in part due to reasons outside the authorities’ control.
Specifically,
work progresses in the area of consumer protection, with the adoption of
secondary legislation to introduce a risk assessment framework and the
complaint management model expected by end-May 2021, as compared
to the timeline agreed in the context of the 9
th
report, i.e. by end-March.
Conversely, for reasons outside the authorities’ control, work on the area
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State of play and next steps
of health and safety of workers, is now delayed to end-June 2021, as
compared to end-March. Despite this, the commitment to finalise
inspection legislation in the four remaining areas is still expected by
end2021.
Investment licensing.
Greece will finalise the simplification of
Substantial progress is recorded on the simplification of legislation in
investment licensing procedures in the agreed remaining sectors.
the remaining sectors, nonetheless, some economic activities relating
to education have not been included in the scope of these
simplification initiatives.
Specifically, the authorities recently adopted
legislation to simplify activities in the priority areas of transport, social
welfare, physical well-being, leasing of maritime leisure equipment,
amusement sector activities, and different forms of tourism. The
legislation simplifies the business environment by reducing requirements
and the extent of ex-ante control currently imposed on businesses. The
authorities have also drafted the first of the three batches of secondary
legislation deriving from this law, which is expected to adopted by end-
May 2021, with a minor delay compared with the end-April timeline
agreed in the context of the 9
th
report. Further batches are envisaged for
end-June and mid-September 2021, as agreed in the context of the 9
th
enhanced surveillance report. Further, the authorities recently submitted
for public consultation a new bill on the reform of most activities that
have not been reformed so far. Relevant legislation to simplify activities
in the area of education, namely colleges, private tutoring, language
centres and technical and vocational secondary education, is planned to
be adopted by September 2021. Lastly, with the support of ongoing
technical assistance provided by the Commission, the authorities will, by
the beginning of 2022, develop a legislative framework for the licensing
of certain activities, namely for non-therapeutic spas and massage centres,
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artificial tanning units and the storage of boats in land areas. In parallel,
the simplification of activities relating to ski resorts and tourist ports will
also be examined with the support of technical assistance by end-2021,
whilst a wider reform of these activities has been proposed in the context
of the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Cadastre.
Greece will fully establish the cadastral agency and
complete 45% of cadastral mapping by end 2021, with a view to
ratifying the complete cadastral mapping and forest maps by mid-
2022.
There is good progress in the completion of the cadastral surveys.
By
end-2021, 86.5% of the total property rights are expected to be either
integrated in the cadastre or collected (declared) and in the process of
being integrated. The level of objections so far is around 2-3%, which is
within the normal level.
Transition from mortgage offices to cadastral offices continues at a
steady pace of two new cadastral offices opening per month (and the
corresponding closures of mortgage offices).
As of April 2021, seven
cadastral offices and 19 sub-offices were open and in operation (28%). In
terms of property deeds, 15% of the total deeds have been transferred to
the cadastral offices. In April 2021, the cadastral office of Patras was
opened, serving the 3
rd
biggest city with about a million of property
rights.
The public presentation of forest maps has been completed for 95%
of the country.
About 50% of the country now has ratified maps. The
remaining maps will be ratified after the regulatory time for filing
objections has elapsed. The authorities have decided to extend this time
by six months due to the pandemic and to address administrative and
legislative hitches. It is expected that about 95% of Greece will have their
maps ratified in the first quarter of 2022.
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Energy.
With a view to completing reforms in the energy sector,
Following completion of the market test, the Commission is
implement the measures agreed as part of the joint assessment on the
discussing with the authorities how to best incorporate the feedback
NOME auction system.
provided by market actors into the anti-trust remedy to be finalised
shortly.
The authorities are engaging constructively in this discussion, in
order to ensure that the final remedy will have the desirable effect.
(*) Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP).
The good progress in the implementation of the Corporation’s
The Strategic Plan of HCAP will be implemented on a continuous
strategic plan continued.
Notably:
basis.
(i) The Corporation has launched the update of its strategic plan.
This
follows the issuance of the updated Ministerial Guidance, which sets out
the government’s general vision for the Corporation over the medium
term and its expectations for the financial performance of the
Corporation’s portfolio of assets. It is welcome that the authorities
engaged thoroughly with the European institutions as part of drafting the
updated Ministerial Guidance. The additional focus of the Ministerial
Guidance on market-based management and financial performance, as
well as clarifying the Corporation’s
responsibility for active asset
management, is also an important step forward. Within this updated
framework the Corporation intends to increase its focus on acting as an
active shareholder. Preparatory work is also underway for the
benchmarking analysis for the subsidiaries and the Corporation to support
accountability and enable objective commercial targets.
(ii) The Steering Committee envisaged under the Coordination
Mechanism has been set up for the Athens Urban Transport
Organisation (OASA).
This will be a further important step forward in
clarifying the financial contribution of the State to public policy costs,
and toward the Athens Urban Transport Organisation’s operational
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improvement, independence and financial sustainability. Furthermore,
discussions started on the preparation of a performance contract. A
detailed list of special obligations to be subject to the performance
contract for the Athens Urban Transport Organisation has been agreed, in
April, by the Steering Committee.
(iii) The Corporation proceeded with further work on identifying
legal impediments to the effective, agile and commercial operation of
state-owned enterprises managed by the Corporation.
The elimination
of these impediments is essential for enabling the state-owned enterprises
to become operationally and financially independent, and do business in a
customer-centric way and in line with private sector principles. It is
therefore key to the future success of the Corporation’s mission. A first
list of impediments was compiled in April 2021, whereas a more
comprehensive one will be prepared by endJune 2021. The authorities
have shown clear support for this work, which also complements the
authorities’ broader initiatives aiming at improving the operational
framework of state-owned assets. It is important that the Corporation
provides input to these broader initiatives where there is an interaction of
these initiatives with it. The authorities have also engaged from an early
stage with the institutions on these initiatives, which is very welcome.
The authorities are also working on modernising the institutional
framework for state-owned enterprises and other public legal entities
and are engaging with the European institutions to progress on this
initiative in a collaborative fashion.
This work stream entails (i) the
codification, improvement and modernisation of the current legal
framework (Law 3429/2005) on state–owned enterprises and (ii) the
creation of a single digital registry to capture information on every
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enterprise, organisation and any other legal entity in which the state
participates.
In mid-February 2021, following the expiry of the term of office of
the first Board of the Corporation, a new Board assumed office.
The
transition has been smooth and the work of the Corporation continues.
HCAP.
Complete the transfer of the Olympic Athletic Centre
The authorities proceeded to the elaboration, with the assistance of
(OAKA)
to HCAP.
external consultants, of a master plan.
The core goal is to develop a
civic park that provides a high level of amenity to visitors, with sports and
recreation facilities and to ensure the site’s financial sustainability by
adding new commercial uses. It will be important that the site will be able
to generate enough revenue to comfortably secure its future over a very
long timeframe. The bulk of the maintenance and upgrade works should
be completed before transfer to the Corporation.
HCAP.
Transfer the eligible real estate assets included in the 2018
Despite the completion of the first evaluation and screening by the
package to the Public Real Estate Company, reflecting the May 2020
General Secretariat for Tax Policy and Public Property, work is still
ruling of the Council of State.
needed for the transfer of the eligible real estate assets to the Public
Real Estate Company.
The evaluation and screening involved an
identification of the large number of assets, their initial categorisation and
an issues analysis. An itemised list with the findings of the screening
process was given to the European institutions on 30 April 2021. The next
step will be a validation of the findings by the involved ministries.
Privatisation.
The Asset Development Plan will be implemented on
The updated Asset Development Plan was approved by the Board of
a continuous basis.
the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund and endorsed by the
Government Council for Economic Policy on 14 May 2021
(FEK B’,
With a view to swiftly attracting investment to support a sustained
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economic recovery, complete the transactions on Hellinikon, 2010/14.05.2021).
HELPE, Egnatia, DEPA commercial, regional ports of
The privatisation proceeds in 2020 amounted to €46.3 million, mainly
Alexandroupolis and Kavala, AIA shares, EYDAP and EYATH.
from the financial closing of the transaction on the marina of Alimos
By mid-2021, complete the transactions on the regional ports
and the sale of small real estate assets.
The initial target of proceeds of
Igoumenitsa and Kerkyra, PPC, DEPA infrastructure and Kavala
around €1 billion that was set at the beginning of 2020 was adversely
underground storage.
affected by the delayed implementation of the privatisation programme
due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
By mid-2022, complete the transactions on a number of other
regional ports, based on the recommendations of the consultants of
Progress with specific transactions since the last report has been as
TAIPED.
follows:
Hellinikon:
The transaction of Hellinikon moves closer towards its final
stage for implementation following the ratification of the binding legal
document on the partition of the Hellinikon site and the establishment of
surface rights by the Hellenic Parliament on 24 March 2021. The review
procedure of the supporting documents of the selected investor for the
casino licence by the Hellenic Gaming Commission was completed on
12 February 2021, whereas the Court of Audit approval is expected in
June 2021. Its ratification by the Parliament is expected thereafter.
However, two decisions of the Council of State are still pending. In this
regard, the petition for annulment of the Joint Ministerial Decision for the
Urbanization Zones of the Integrated Development Plan was rejected on
2 April 2021, as well as the two petitions for annulment regarding the
forestry issue, which were rejected on 14 May 2021. The financial closing
of the transaction is expected in the coming months.
Egnatia:
Progress was made over the past two months in the tender
process for the long-term concession of Egnatia. On 1 April 2021 two
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binding offers were submitted. However, a third pre-qualified bidder
proceeded to taking legal actions (application for interim measures)
against the rejection, by the Board of the Fund, of its request for an
extension of the date for the submission of binding offers. The relevant
Court did not accept the request for the issuance of a provisional order for
the suspension of the tender process until the hearing of the application
for interim measures. The above hearing was held on 10 May and the
application for interim measures was rejected. The Fund has proceeded
with the unsealing and review of the technical offer, whereas the
unsealing of the financial offers is expected in due course. Progress on the
remaining pending actions has been limited and works are behind
schedule regarding both the toll stations and licensing of the remaining
tunnels. A frontal toll station was put in operation in mid-March, whereas
a third cluster of 8 lateral toll stations have been put in operation on
18 May (six toll stations) and 20 May (2 toll stations). The pending works
for most of the tunnels were completed by the end of April 2021. Close
monitoring will continue.
Regional ports of Alexandroupolis and Kavala:
Assessment of the
investors’ Expressions of Interest and the short listing of the prequalified
parties for the Binding Offers Phase was concluded on 30 March 2021,
thus launching the Binding Offers Phase for both transactions.
Regional port of Igoumenitsa:
The assessment of the investors’
Expressions of Interest and the short listing of the prequalified parties for
the Binding Offers Phase was concluded 22 April 2021, thus launching
the Binding Offers Phase for the transaction.
Regional port of Heraklion:
The Fund launched on 5 April 2021 an
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international public tender for the submission of the expression of interest
for the sale of shares (sale of a majority stake of at least 67%). The tender
process will be held in two phases: (a) submission of expressions of
interest and pre-qualification of interested parties and (b) submission of
binding offers and selection of the preferred investor. Interested parties
are invited to submit their expression of interest on 30 July 2021.
Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) Infrastructure:
The tender process is
proceeding. Work is being done on the pending issues, which need to be
resolved prior to the submission of binding offers. In April 2021(i) an
agreement was reached between DEPA Infrastructure and the private
investor (ENI Gas e Luce) owning 49% of the distribution system
operator in Thessaloniki (EDA Thess) on the terms of the transaction for
the sale of 49% of the distribution system operator in Thessaloniki, which
will take place upon completion of the DEPA Infrastructure tender,
whereas (ii) an approval by Parliament of the required law amendments
that will provide further clarity on the framework for the operation of the
distribution system operators is expected in the coming weeks. The
submission of binding offers is scheduled for 15 July 2021.
Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) Commercial:
The Fund decided to
suspend the Binding Offers Phase of the tender at least until September
2021, so as to have more clarity on the outcome of pending issues.
Underground Natural Gas Storage (South Kavala:
Assessment of the
investors’ Expressions of Interest and the short listing of the prequalified
parties for the Binding Offers Phase was concluded on 30 March 2021,
thus launching the Binding Offers Phase. The Regulatory Authority for
Energy is expected to issue a decision providing clarity on the tariff-
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setting framework in the coming weeks.
As reported in the previous enhanced surveillance reports, some
transactions had to be delayed following a significant fall in the
assets’ capitalisation value or the impact of the pandemic on the level
of economic activity.
This applies to the Hellenic Petroleum and the sale
of 30% of Athens International Airport.
Public administration.
Complete the integrated HR Management
Following the completion of the digital organigrams for general
System (digital organigram for all public entities and link with single
government entities, the authorities have made further progress and
payment authority).
established a link between the job description and jobholder for more
than 60% of all posts.
If the so called ‘non-defined posts’ (i.e. posts that
are yet to be characterised as ‘occupied’, ‘vacant’ or ‘on hold’) are
removed then the link has been established for 83.6% and is expected to
reach 100% by August 2021. Completion of this important exercise will
facilitate the management of human resources in the public administration
through interconnecting the records on each jobholder collected by the
census of public officials, the Single Payment Authority and the human
resources department. Job descriptions for all posts are planned to be
completed by end-2021, which would complete this specific commitment.
Finally, the appointment process for the Permanent Secretary post at the
Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, which has seen some delays,
is expected to be completed by July 2021.
Legal codification.
In view of enhancing legal certainty and access
The process of labour law codification is affected by the delay in
to law through legal codification, adopt the Labour Law Code and
adopting the labour law reform (see below).
In terms of legislative
Code of Labour Regulatory Provisions.
procedures, it is not possible to carry out a codification process while a
reform of the same provisions to be codified is being discussed. The
committee coordinating the authorities’ efforts to codify all laws has
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confirmed that it would proceed with the labour law codification as a
matter of priority following the adoption of the new labour law. The draft
law was put in public consultation on 13 May and is planned to be
submitted to Parliament during the first week of June 2021.
Regarding the implementation of e-filing in civil courts, the
authorities submitted a note on the state of play but are yet to
In the context of implementing the Three-Year Action Plan on
develop an action plan with a timetable to the completion of the
Justice, implement the electronic filing of legal documents
project.
According to the authorities, its elaboration will depend on the
throughout the Courts, having completed the tendering procedure.
progress of the second phase of
the case management project (‘OSDDY-
PP’).
In the context of implementing the Three-Year Action Plan on
Justice, complete phase II of the establishment of the e-justice system
Regarding the implementation of mandatory e-filing in
(OSDDY-PP).
administrative courts, work is ongoing on the implementation of
infrastructure enhancements and the interoperability between the
respective IT systems of the courts and the administration.
The
President of the Council of State is expected to confirm the good standing
of the system in June, so that the mandatory filing, covering initial
submissions, memoranda and the submissions of administrative files, be
implemented as of September 2021.
The distribution of digital signatures to judges and courts’ clerical
staff is nearing completion, with 9 000 signatures (out of 11 000)
already distributed.
Moreover, according to the authorities, the Athens
Bar Association confirmed that 20 000 lawyers (out of a maximum
40
000 of registered bar associations’ members) have already received
digital signatures, of which approximately 12 000 were handed out to
lawyers in the Athens metropolitan area. The demand for the issuance of
signatures remains strong among lawyers. As for notaries, they will
Justice
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shortly receive digital signatures from the public sector. Moreover, all
members of judicial bailiffs associations across the country have already
been issued with state of the art digital signatures.
Authorities reported some progress in the preparation of the launch
of the call for bids for the integrated case management system
(‘OSDDY-PP’(.
The authorities are in the process of concluding a
Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Justice and the
Society of Information Society of Information (the procurement
authority). The latter is expected to finalize the draft Request for Proposal
by mid-June 2021 and submit it to public consultation by end-June 2021;
the scope of the project will be broadened, with the call for tenders
expected to be published in the third quarter of 2021; the contract is
expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2022.
An ambitious project for the replacement of several certificates
related to the solvency status of businesses by a single one has been
completed and progress was also made in the digitization of divorce
proceedings.
On 7 April, the Ministry of Justice announced the
completion of the project for the electronic issuance of the solvency status
certificate, which replaces twenty five different certificates which were
being separately issued hitherto. Court secretariats are currently
proceeding with appropriately adjusting their IT systems, with the bigger
ones (Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki) having already implemented the
adjustments. Regarding the implementation of the e-divorce procedure,
the necessary amendments to the Civil Code have been adopted (
6
). In
(
6
) Law 4800/2021 (OJ A 81/21.05.2021).
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parallel, the authorities have completed the drafting of the necessary
secondary legislation (a joint ministerial decision), which will be formally
adopted once the Civil Code amendments are published in the Official
Journal.
Fight against corruption.
Implement all recommendations
The authorities have put forward relevant measures to address the
addressed by the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).
remaining GRECO recommendations and established a timeline to
complete the specific commitment.
The authorities provided an
indicative roadmap that contains the measures envisaged to implement
the following recommendations, which are still pending from GRECO’s
fourth evaluation round. The recommended actions will be completed as
follows: (i) enhancing the processes for selection for senior positions of
judges and prosecutors, and for disciplinary proceedings: by end-2021;
(ii) providing guarantees against judicial delays, and improving caseload
management and functioning of courts (including public reports): by
April 2022; (iii) setting clear standards for conduct and integrity of judges
and prosecutors, and developing relevant training: by end-2021; (iv)
revising the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code to tackle
issues concerning bribery of public officials: by end-2021. Measures to
address the aforementioned recommendations include, among others,
legislative initiatives, deployment of information systems and
amendments in Codes, Charters and internal processes.
Progress has been observed with other important initiatives
concerning the fight against corruption, notably the long-awaited
improvements to the asset declaration process.
The internal evaluation
of the National Anti-Corruption Plan for 2018-2021 has been concluded
and its output will be integrated in the new 2022-2025 Plan, while the
external evaluation is expected for mid-2021. As concerns asset
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declarations, a joint decision by the Parliament and the Ministry of
Finance was adopted to determine the persons that are considered
politically exposed, and the relevant list is aligned to the list of persons
obliged to submit asset declarations in the political field. Further, the
National Transparency Authority has concluded the remaining asset
declaration audits for years 2016-2019, and has acquired access to the
taxpayers’ registry database, which is expected to
reinforce its operational
capacity. Regarding financing of political parties, audits for year 2018
resulted in fines that were deducted from the state funding provided to the
relevant political parties, while audits for year 2019 are to be concluded
by the end of 2021. Moreover, there has been some progress with the
legal codification of the parties financing law that is anticipated to come
into force in the third quarter of 2021. Finally, the lobbying law is
planned to be introduced to the Parliament in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Complementary commitments undertaken by Greek authorities in May 2020
Complementary commitment
Better regulation.
Achieve improvements in the regulatory
framework for doing business in the areas of construction permits,
obtaining access to electricity, registering property, resolving
insolvency, accessing credit, protecting minority investors,
contracting with the government, enforcing contracts, starting a
business, paying taxes, and trading across borders by mid-2021.
State of play and next steps
The authorities completed interventions aiming, among others, to
reduce the time for private companies to become operational and to
rationalise requirements for connecting to electricity.
The authorities
also elaborated intervention plans to be implemented over the mid-term,
including legislative actions, technological interventions, training and
communication. These measures aim at improving the process for
registering property, mainly through the deployment of digital tools, such
as an e-platform for transferring property and an e-platform for the
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State of play and next steps
transactions of notaries, which will also interoperate with tax
administration systems for tax purposes. The authorities also aim to
further expedite the construction permit process through the extension of
the interoperability of the ‘e-adeies’ system for building permits with
several other services, the implementation of a risk-based approach in fire
safety inspections involving private sector expertise, in addition to
organising public outreach campaigns to professionals to ensure correct
implementation of the new processes. Moreover, further simplification of
requirements is envisaged to improve the process for obtaining an
electricity connection, backed by the adoption of necessary secondary
legislation. Lastly, in the area of improving access to credit, plans include
the introduction of a framework on movable property transactions, and the
creation of public credit bureau to provide information on the
creditworthiness of debtors.
Labour law.
Improve and modernize the framework for individual
labour law, including tackling the issues of highly restrictive
overtime rules, unnecessary sectoral differentiation, white collar/blue
collar rules, and take account of flexible and home working, as well
as implement these measures through secondary legislation, by
September 2020.
Justice.
Introduce an action plan for the creation of specialized court
chambers for specific categories of cases to improve the delivery of
justice, particularly in areas of high economic impact, and introduce
the adequate legislation by mid-2020.
The authorities have confirmed that, following the public consultation
process that started on 13 May and will last until 27 May, the Labour
Reform law would be tabled in Parliament during the first week of
June 2021 with a view to being adopted within the same month.
The
European institutions were consulted on the draft law.
Preparations for the creation of special chambers in three out of four
major courts of Greece are progressing well.
Following the Athens and
Thessaloniki courts of appeal, the Thessaloniki court of first instance
amended its internal regulation to allow for the creation of special
chambers. The amended regulations have been submitted to the Supreme
Court for approval; once approved, they will be published in the Official
Journal and will enter into force. In contrast, the Athens court of first
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State of play and next steps
instance has not yet convened a plenary session to adopt the relevant
amendments to its internal regulation and no timetable was communicated
in this respect by the authorities. Regarding the creation of special
chambers in administrative courts, no action is contemplated at present,
given that the model special chambers for the adjudication of tax cases
had already been set up prior to the adoption of the relevant legislation (
7
).
Justice.
Enact the new Code of Judicial Staff and present a timetable
While the Code of Judicial Staff was adopted on 23 April 2021 (
8
),
for the adoption of the New Code for the Organization of Justice and
work is ongoing on the Code for the Organization of Justice and the
the Status of Officers of the Courts by May 2020.
Status of Officers of the Courts.
The revised draft code is expected to be
handed in by the law-drafting group by end-June 2021 and, after
processing by the Ministry of Justice, to be submitted to the plenary
formations of the supreme courts for review by end-July 2021. Following
public consultation in November 2021, the code is planned to be adopted
by Parliament by December 2021 and enter into force upon publication in
the Official Journal, with the possible exception of a number of transitory
provisions, which may call for a deferred date of entry into force.
Justice.
Present an action plan for the Creation of a specialized
‘JustStat’ unit for data collection and processing to measure and
improve the performance of the judicial system by mid-2020;
introduce the relevant legislation by June 2020.
The authorities reported progress regarding the adoption of
secondary legislation for the
‘JustStat’ unit, which is a prerequisite
for the launch of the call for bids.
The Ministry of Justice submitted the
necessary draft legislation (presidential decree) to the Ministry of Digital
Policy; once the text is finalized, it will be submitted to the Council of
State for the constitutionality scrutiny; the authorities confirmed that
adoption will follow in June 2021. In parallel, work is being conducted on
7
8
Article 360 of law 4700/2020 (OJ 127 A/29.6.2020).
Law 4798/2021 (OJ A 68/24.04.2021).
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State of play and next steps
setting up a web server for the collection of judicial statistics. The tender
for the procurement of IT infrastructure (mainly software) is expected to
be launched by end-June 2021.
Public administration.
Strengthen the efficiency of the personnel
selection system through improving the capacity of the Supreme
Council for Civil Personnel Selection (ASEP), including in the areas
of competition procedures, scoring classification procedures,
temporary staff hiring procedures, and the Council’s organisation by
end-2022.
Following the adoption of a law aiming to strengthen the Personnel
Selection Council, the authorities have set out an action plan on key
steps to be taken to ensure full and timely implementation of the
adopted law.
The action plan, which is being prepared through technical
support provided by the European Commission, covers a number of areas,
including the organisational transformation of Council and the new
selection system for civil servants.
Public administration.
Strengthen the hiring control of the public
The authorities have made progress with the work necessary for
sector through setting an annual ceiling of temporary staff by end-
setting the ceiling on the recruitment of temporary staff that will
2020, which will be applied from 2021.
come into effect as of 2022, while the temporary staff category will see
a significant overall reduction by October 2021 and once ongoing
hiring procedures converting temporary posts into permanent ones
are completed.
The authorities have committed to carry out an
assessment by August 2021 of the largest temporary staff group not falling
under a specific category of civil servants (e.g. seasonal, temporary),
which constitutes approximately 70% of all temporary staff (around
65 000). Thereafter, a Joint Ministerial Decision will be adopted by
October 2021, setting a ceiling on the recruitment of temporary staff as of
2022. Finally, the soon to be completed selection procedures for 10 500
teachers on permanent posts will result in a corresponding reduction of
temporary staff as of October 2021.
As part of the efforts to strengthen central control of human
resources management, the authorities are advancing on listing all
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State of play and next steps
past deviations from standard hiring procedures and the unified wage
grid.
First, on hiring procedures, a legal provision is planned to be
adopted by June 2021 that will address identified deviations, mainly
concerning the mobility scheme. Secondly, following finalisation by
November 2021 of a list of deviations from the unified wage grid covering
the period from 2016 until today, legal provision(s) addressing these
deviations in a systematic manner to follow by first quarter of 2022.
Revision of the methodology for the allowance for hazardous and
arduous work will require further extension.
The new extension is until
August, following which the required legislation is planned to be in place
by the end of this year.
Transport.
Report on the progress of the elaboration of sustainable
The new law on sustainable urban mobility plans was adopted on
urban mobility plans for the main urban centres by October 2020.
16 March 2021, successfully completing this commitment.
The new
law includes transitional provisions, which allow the approval of the plans
that were already produced under the previous law but have not yet been
approved. In total twenty municipalities have produced draft plans, several
of which concern cities of medium size. They are mandatory for cities
over 30 000 inhabitants. These will be finalised and approved by June
2021.
Management of public real estate.
Draw up a holistic and coherent
strategy aiming to optimize the protection, management and
investment-oriented exploitation of public real estate, including all
organizations involved with public real estate management, without
prejudice to their mandates, by September 2020.
An agreement has been reached by the working group on the scope
and timeline of the study.
The working group was set up in January,
composed of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Hellenic
Corporation of Assets and Participations, its subsidiary the Public Real
Estate Company and university professors. The objective of the working
group was to determine the scope and timeline of the study aiming at the
elaboration of a holistic and coherent strategy to optimise the functioning
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of the Greek real estate market. The agreed scope of the study includes the
identification of international best practices and mapping of current
situation / gaps, sustainable development of the public property and areas
for reform of the framework for the development of public real estate
assets. The first phase of the tender process is expected by the end of May
2021.
Strategic project pipeline.
Fully develop a Strategic Project Pipeline
of large infrastructure projects with the objective to better coordinate
and monitor future public expenditures and maximize
complementarities between private, public and EU funded projects
by January 2021.
The establishment of a Strategic Project Pipeline will facilitate
planning and implementation of public investment projects, especially
for the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Draft legislative amendments
for its establishment have been prepared and adopted by Parliament by
Law 4799 (FEK A’, 78/18.05.2021). The projects to be included in the
Pipeline will be assessed and approved by the Government Committee for
Contracts of Strategic Importance upon a recommendation of the
Programming and Design Committee consisting of secretary generals.
Draft legislative amendments that will add the mandate of the Project
Preparation Facility to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development
Fund have been prepared and are expected to be adopted by
Parliament in early June.
It is intended that Facility will inter alia
prepare strategic projects both for the Recovery and Resilience Facility
and for EU structural funds and pre-financing of the preparation funds will
be arranged from both sources. The legislative amendments ensure that
appropriate safeguards will be in place so that the Fund can continue to
independently exercise its existing core mandate. The legislative
amendments also provide the new corporate governance structure of the
Fund and ensure the role of the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and
Participations as its sole shareholder to supervise the corporate
governance issues. The timely set-up of Project Preparation Facility will
Project preparation facility.
Develop and fully operationalize an
improved support and delivery mechanism for project preparation
and implementation to ensure efficiency and quality of both public
sector infrastructure projects as well as Public Private Partnerships by
March 2021.
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speed up the delivery of Recovery and Resilience Facility projects and
other public investment projects. Recruitment of staff for the new Facility
is underway and the staffing of the core team is expected to be completed
by end-June/July 2021. The preparation of the tenders for the framework
contracts for legal, technical and financial consultants are at an advanced
stage. The tender process for the framework contracts is expected to be
launched shortly after the approval in Parliament of the legislative
amendments.
Public procurement.
Adopt a new public procurement strategy for
The authorities adopted in March 2021 a new law to overhaul and
2021–2025 by end 2020.
address major weaknesses of the public procurement framework and
are currently working on its full operationalisation.
Work on the
issuance of secondary legislation acts, which had been identified as
critical for the operationalisation of the framework progresses, with the
first out of the three batches of relevant joint ministerial decisions drafted.
Their adoption is expected by end-May 2021, broadly in line with the end-
April timeline agreed in the context of the 9
th
report. The authorities plan
to set timelines for implementation also for the remaining secondary
legislation deriving from the law by end-June 2021. The full
operationalisation of the Central Purchasing Authorities, including the one
under the Ministry of Infrastructure which is expected by end-September
2021, is a precondition for the effectiveness of the new system.
A new public procurement strategy for 20212025 is expected to be
adopted by end-May 2021, broadly in line with the end-April timeline
agreed in the context of the 9
th
report.
It is expected to support the
green and digital transition and strengthen the fight against corruption.
According to the updated draft shared by the authorities, key elements
include the improvement and upgrade of public procurement systems and
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tools, actions to ensure effective governance and measurement of
performance, and promote key initiatives such as green procurement and
procurement to encourage innovation. Following its adoption, the
authorities will adopt secondary legislation to set up the necessary
structures to oversee its implementation.
E-Health.
Develop an electronic Medical Health Record to
streamline the use of existing electronic medical record applications
and update as necessary the design and use of agreed electronic
medical record standard across public (and private) healthcare
institutions by end-2020.
The authorities have proposed this measure in Greece’s Recovery and
Resilience Plan.
The technical specifications to update the medical record
with the results of laboratory tests have been completed and will be tested
in July 2021.
E-Health.
Extend the application of the electronic prescription
The authorities have proposed this measure in Greece’s Recovery and
project (2
nd
phase), including through therapeutic protocols, back-end
Resilience Plan.
integrations, artificial intelligence driven inquiries, necessary
interconnection with information systems, and enabling electronic
request and access to medicine for all outpatients with chronic
diseases by end-2020.
Health care strategy.
Develop a National strategic policy
The authorities have proposed this measure in Greece’s Recovery and
framework for healthcare by end-2020.
Resilience Plan.
Health care planning.
Map health and long-term care needs with
The authorities have proposed this measure in Greece’s Recovery and
available human and technical resources, and take measures to ensure
Resilience Plan.
the efficiency, sustainability, accessibility and affordability of health
and long-term care services, as well as promote community-based
services, by end 2020.
Education.
Enhance the autonomy of higher education by
Following several major reforms of the higher education sector in the
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strengthening the accountability and transparency framework and
past months, further steps will be undertaken by end-2021, somewhat
through the introduction of the University Council by end-2020.
later than initially envisaged.
The already adopted reforms concern the
funding of the universities, where public funding will partly depend on
performance criteria, a new law on safety and security of university
premises, a new system for admission to universities that will result in a
reduction of the number of students and a better connection of the
provided degrees with labour market. More students will be channelled to
professional education. A further bill is planned in the near future that will
enhance the autonomy of the higher education institutions, by allowing
them to create and terminate education programmes and will strengthen
the technological education with emphasis on the needs of the labour
market. This bill will also include a revision of the system of university
governance, by re-introducing the separation between the management of
the universities and the governing board. This bill has been postponed due
to other priorities that took precedence and to the pandemic and is
expected to be adopted by December 2021.
Education.
Introduce
internal
school-unit
evaluations,
School education has faced important challenges due to the
institutionalize external assessment of schools, and design new
coronavirus pandemic, with schools being closed most of the time and
curricula for all subjects across all school levels by end-2021.
education being delivered on-line.
This has made the implementation of
the school evaluations more difficult. The design of 123 new curricula is
progressing and they will be experimentally applied in the model and
experimental schools (around 100 schools) in the academic year 2021-22
before being more widely adopted. Regarding teacher evaluation, the
relevant bill is expected to be presented to the Cabinet in May 2021, and
will be adopted in July 2021 and applied in the academic year 2021-22.
E-governance.
Develop the single digital portal (gov.gr) to integrate
The digital accessibility of public services is being continually
all electronic transactions for citizens and businesses with the state
enhanced, in parallel with the ongoing adoption of secondary
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and related information, unify the legal framework on digital policy,
legislation to operationalise the new legal framework on digital
and safeguard business continuity by ensuring sufficiency of digital
governance.
The authorities are on track with the implementation of the
infrastructure mid-2021.
single digital portal, which now features more than 1 150 digital services,
including some new social security and employment services. Notable
achievements include the completion of the first phase of citizens’
accounts i.e. a
personalized service for the storage of citizens’ personal
data, from which citizens can retrieve documents digitally (e.g. following
an application to a public service), the launch of a mobile application to
provide information on available services, and further extending gov.gr
interoperability with citizens’ service centres. To date, citizens can book
online appointments to obtain assistance with more than 65 services and,
according to the authorities, more than 40
000 citizens’ requests have been
serviced in this way without physical interaction with staff at citizens’
service centres. Further, the authorities are drafting secondary legislation
deriving from the new Digital Code. Despite some delay as compared to
the timeline agreed in the context of the 9
th
report, five legislative acts are
finalised and pending for adoption, and further ten acts are expected to be
finalised shortly.
E-governance.
Implement the National Programme for Process
Simplification in key policy areas and promote the interoperability of
registries, data and IT systems to ease the administrative burden for
businesses and citizens by end-2021.
Work on process simplification and digitalisation progresses.
Key
steps include the enactment of the electronic circulation of expenditure
documents within the central administration, the simplification and
digitalisation of the process for citizenship application, and the
consolidation of court certificates related to businesses. Further, the
simplification of tourism-related processes was added to the short-term
work plan, whilst the authorities aim to provide a full year action plan by
end-June. Despite some delay, some 450 services are recorded in the
newly created national registry of procedures to facilitate the standardised
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and transparent execution of services across regional offices, which is
expected to go live shortly. The authorities expect to fully complete this
registry by end-2021.
The completion of a ‘master interoperability
registry’ to unify citizens’ records is now expected by end-October
2021
(as opposed to end-April). Nevertheless, a number of transactions are
already conducted with the burden on citizens’ identification
borne
internally by combining data from various sources, and not by citizens
themselves, including enrolment in the national covid-19 vaccination
programme.
Digitisation of geospatial data.
The tender process has been halted as a result of an appeal that
remains pending.
Following the conclusion of the appeal review, and
Develop a State Infrastructures Registry to encapsulate technical and subject to the outcome of this, the tender will resume with the evaluation
geospatial information about all public infrastructure projects to of financial offers, which is the next step of the process.
enable better planning and management of these projects, including
for construction and maintenance purposes by end-2021.
Develop an Integrated Geospatial Data Mapping tool (Single Digital
Map) to increase transparency to investors concerning land use rules
across Greece and reduce unpredictability in relation to investment
licensing decisions by end-2021.
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