04/12/2008

A new electronic database with legal content was recently presented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The e-Themis database provides free access to the totality of Greek legislation (laws, decrees, and regulatory decisions, as published in the Government's Official Gazette), since the establishment of the Greek State. Its content is organised into 42 thematic modules while the option to search by key words is also provided, in order to facilitate the access of citizens to the legal information that they need. The content of the database is constantly updated in order to ensure the accuracy of the information.

The creation and development of the e-Themis digital database (www.e-themis.gov.gr) was based on the printed material, the thematology and the methodology of the informal codification of the work ?Continuous Legislative Code ? Raptarhis?. This fact offers the e-Themis database the following advantages:

- the statutes are registered by theme and date
- the exploitation of the richness of the legal information of work in ?Continuous Legislative Code ? Raptarhis? which for decades was the only collection of the totality of Greek Legislation
- the management of the database is realised by the Department of Publications and the Secretarial Book Keeping Service of the Economic Directorate of the General Secretariat of Public Administration and Electronic Governance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In the presentation of the e-Themis electronic database, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Xristos Zois noted: ?With the project, exploiting the new possibilities given by the Informatics and Communications Technologies and within the framework of Electronic Governance, we put the totality of Greek legislation in existance since the establishment of the Greek State at the disposal of the citizens and the country?s legal minds. Thanks to the e-Themis project we are now in a position to offer, with just one click - safely, directly, and rapidly and most importantly without any financial burden - immediate electronic access to the legal information, to laws, decrees and regulatory acts, as they are published in the Official Gazette. It is a project which is being realised by the Information Society S.A. and is currently in the completion phase. It constitutes a significant improvement in the provision of electronic services of added value for the citizen.

The e-Themis database aims to:
- update the service for the citizen and the direct Electronic Disposal of the Continuous Legislation Coding (CLC) for the wider public
- modernize the internal operation of the service of the Ministry managing and processing the Code, in order to support the improved services for citizens, enterprises and public bodies
- ensure compliance of the codification of the legislation with international standards, and more specifically, within the framework of the country?s obligations as a member of the European Union
- create a mechanism for the automation of procedures, for the valuation of the regulatory regulations via infrastructures of Participatory Electronic Democracy, e-Democracy.

Source: e-Themis