Reinforcement of transparency with the compulsory uploading of laws and acts of government, administrative and local government bodies on the Internet (Clarity Program) and other provisions.
LAW 3861
Reinforcement of transparency with the compulsory uploading of laws and acts of government, administrative and local government bodies on the Internet (Clarity Program) and other provisions.
THE PRESIDENT
OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC
We promulgate the following law enacted by the Parliament:
Article 1
Object of the law
The object of the present law is the introduction of the obligation to upload on the Internet laws, presidential decrees and acts issued by the persons and bodies mentioned under article 2 and the establishment of the conditions and procedures necessary for the safeguarding of a wide publicity of the same.
Article 2
Scope
1. The provisions of the present law are applied in laws, presidential decrees, decisions and acts issued by the Prime Minister, the Cabinet of Ministers and the collective government bodies, the Ministers, Deputy Ministers, State Secretaries, Secretaries-General of Ministries and Regions, Special Secretaries of Ministries, the administration bodies of legal persons of public law, the independent and regulatory administrative authorities, the Legal Council of the State, the administration bodies of entities belonging to the parapublic sector for those cases mentioned in the present law, as well as the bodies of local government agencies of first and second level. The provisions of the present law are also applied to acts and decisions issued by bodies to which, those mentioned in the present paragraph, have delegated power of signature or responsibility.
2. For the purposes of the present law, the entities belonging to the parapublic sector will comprise: a) legal persons of private law belonging to the state or receiving regular subsidies, according to the provisions in force, by state funds, up to no less than 50% of their annual budget and b) public enterprises and organisms provided for under the provisions of article 1 of law 3429/2005.
3. For the purposes of the present law the entities of the local authorities of first and second level comprise the elected bodies of local government agencies of first and second level and the legal persons and enterprises of local government agencies.
4. The following will be uploaded on the Internet:
1) laws issued and published according to the Constitution,
2) decree-laws provided for by article 44, par. 1 of the Constitution,
3) presidential decrees of regulatory nature,
4) other acts of regulatory nature with the exception of regulatory acts concerning the organization, structure, composition, deployment, procurement and equipment of the Country’s Armed Forces, as well as any other act the publicity of which would harm the defence and security of the country,
5) explanatory circulars and circulars on the application of legislation,
6) budgets, reports, balance sheets and individual expenses of Ministries, central and regional public services, legal persons of public law, entities belonging to the parapublic sector and entities of the local authorities of first and second level,
7) appointment acts of single-member administrative bodies and acts of establishment of collective administrative bodies of public entities, of legal persons of public law, of entities belonging to the parapublic sector and entities of the local authorities of first and second level, as well as the amendments of the same,
8) acts of appointment, of acceptance of resignation, of replacement or dismissal of Secretaries-General of Ministries and Regions, Special Secretaries of Ministries, members of collective administrative bodies of public entities, of legal persons of public law, of entities belonging to the parapublic sector and entities of the local authorities of first and second level,
9) acts of establishment of both paid and unpaid committees, working groups, and related bodies with opinion giving or other competence, independently of whether their members are paid or not,
10) acts for the definition of remuneration and compensation of the members of both single-member and collective administrative bodies, members of committees, working groups and related bodies with opinion giving or other competence,
11) vacancy notices for a competition or selection, including notices for the selection and filling of posts of directors of legal persons of public law, of entities belonging to the parapublic sector, and of enterprises and entities of the local authorities of first and second level, as well as notices for the examinations of candidate lawyers, notaries and unpaid registrars,
12) vacancy notices for posts of teaching and research staff for universities and education staff for the technological sector of higher education,
13) lists of successful candidates, appointees and runners-up of notices for personnel selection, in those cases where their publication is provided for under the legislation in force,
14) summaries of acts of appointment, reassignment, cessation of service, acceptance of resignation, termination of the employment contract or demotion, for permanent and revocable employees, directors of the public sector, of legal persons of public law, of entities belonging to the parapublic sector, of entities of the local authorities of first and second level, as well as of corresponding acts concerning public officers, the publicity of which is required by the legislation in force, and summaries of appointment acts and private law employment contracts or works contract on the public sector, the legal persons of public law, the entities belonging to the parapublic sector and entities of the local authorities of first and second level,
15) all contracts and acts concerning development laws, including acts for the subjection of investments to the provisions of development laws and the decisions for the beginning of the productive operation of investments,
16) summaries of notices, decisions and acts of adjudication and assignment of contracts for public works, procurement, services and studies of the public sector, of legal persons of public law, of entities belonging to the parapublic sector and entities of the local authorities of first and second level,
17) acts for the acceptance of donations to the Greek public sector, to the legal persons of public law, to an entity belonging to the parapublic sector or to entities of the local authorities of first and second level, as well as contracts for cultural sponsorship provided for by law 3525/2007 (Official Gazette 16 Α΄),
18) acts of donation, grants, concession of use of assets of the public sector, of legal persons of public law, of entities of the local authorities or entities belonging to the parapublic sector to natural persons, legal persons of private law and legal persons of public law,
19) acts concerning the following: a) the concession of public and municipal land, the definition of the land use of the public land under concession, the change of the land use of a public land,
b) the definition of natural reserves, forests and woodlands,
c) the attribution of reforestation status to certain areas,
d) the definition of coastlines, beaches, lakes, rivers, streams and torrents,
e) the definition of industrial areas,
f) the definition of quarrying zones,
g) the elaboration and approval of urban planning studies and general urban plans, the approval and amendment of spatial and town plans, the definition or amendment of settlement limits and the approval of its transfer,
h) the elaboration and approval of Urban Control Areas (UCAs),
i) the definition and amendment of the building restrictions,
j) the delivery, postponement of delivery, amendment of building permits,
k) land demarcation,
l) the definition of archaeological sites,
m) the attribution and removal of listed status to buildings. The acts of revocation and cancellation of the above mentioned acts will also be posted,
20) the opinions and the minutes of the relevant sessions of the Legal Council of the State,
21) the acts and opinions of independent and regulatory administrative authorities, the publication of which is provided for by the legislation in force,
22) the individual administrative acts, the publication of which is provided for by a special provision.
Article 3
Compulsory uploading on the Internet
1. The acts mentioned under article 2 of the present law should be immediately uploaded on the Internet, care of the issuing body. Laws and presidential decrees are uploaded on the website of the relevant Ministries. The acts of the Prime Minister and of the Cabinet of Ministers are uploaded on the website of the Office of the Prime Minister and of the General-Secretariat of the Government. The acts of the Ministers, Deputy Ministers, State Secretaries, General and Special Secretaries and bodies that have been granted power of signature or competence should be uploaded on the website of each relevant Ministry. The acts of the administrative bodies of legal persons of public law, of the administrative bodies of entities belonging to the parapublic sector, of independent and regulatory authorities and entities of the local authorities of first and second level are uploaded on the relevant websites of the said entities.
2. In case of joint competence, the act is uploaded on all relevant websites, care of the competent entities.
3. Laws, presidential decrees and acts mentioned under article 2 of the present law are uploaded in a way so as to make access to information easy for the user.
4. In case the relevant legislation provides for the uploading of a summary of an act or decision on the Internet, the said summary should be uploaded.
Article 4
Legal force of the acts
1. The acts mentioned under article 2, when these should be published according to the law in the Official Gazette, take effect from the date of their publication, unless otherwise stated.
2. With the exception of the acts mentioned in the previous paragraph, the other acts that should be uploaded on the Internet according to the present law will not be executed unless previously uploaded on the Internet according to the provisions of the present law.
3. The provisions of paragraph 2 of the present law do not affect the relevant procedural provisions concerning the exercise of any legal remedy nor the provisions on administrative recourse.
4. Should the text of an act published according to the law differ from the corresponding text of the same act as uploaded on the Internet, the text of the act published according to the law shall prevail. Concerning the acts not published in any other way, in case of a discrepancy between the text that has been uploaded and the text of the act, the latter shall prevail. The necessary corrections to the text uploaded on the Internet will be done immediately with the responsibility of the body issuing the act.
Article 5
Protection of personal data and secrecy
The uploading on the Internet of acts mentioned under article 2 and the organizing of the search for information is made without prejudice to the rules on the protection of the individual against the processing of personal data. Acts containing sensitive personal data, as these are defined in the relevant legislation, will not be published.
The uploading on the Internet of acts mentioned under article 2 and the organizing of the search for information is made without prejudice to state secrets, as these are provided for by the relevant legislation, to the rules of intellectual and industrial property, as well as to the company or other secret provided for by special provisions.
Article 6
Procedure for the uploading on the Internet
1. A project management team with the aim of providing technical, procedural and organizational support for the uploading of acts on the Internet will be established in all Ministries, central, special or regional public services, legal persons of public law, in the entities of the local authorities of first and second level, as well as in all entities or bodies responsible for the uploading on the Internet of laws, presidential decrees and acts according to the law. The members of those teams will not receive any award or compensation. The project management teams are established within one month from the date of publication of the present law and their composition is made public in the relevant website. The project management teams of the entities of the local authorities of first and second level are established within thirty (30) days before the entry into force of the present law for the said entities, according to the specific provisions of the present law.
2. At the same time with the uploading on the relevant websites according to article 4, the person defined by the law, transmits to the National Printing House all the data required for the uploading on the central website of the National Printing House, according to the provisions of the present law. The National Printing House is responsible for the creation and operation of the central website for the uploading of the acts.
3. In all entities obliged, according to the law, to upload acts on the Internet, a record should be established and kept containing all laws, presidential decrees, acts and decisions uploaded, and it should be accessible to all interested parties using digital means.
4. The National Printing House establishes and keeps a central record of laws, presidential decrees and acts uploaded on the Internet according to the law, which should be accessible to all interested parties using digital means.
5. The entities and bodies obliged according to the law to upload laws, presidential decrees, acts and decisions, should take all the necessary and appropriate technical, procedural and organizational measures to guarantee the accessibility, integrity and availability of the uploaded texts.
6. During the planning and maintenance of the websites as well as in the uploading of laws and acts provided for by the present law, special care should be given to the access of persons with disabilities in the content of these websites.
7. A decision of the Minister of the Interior, Decentralization and e-Government shall settle all specific and technical matters on the application of the present law, especially these concerning the collection, sorting, registration and processing of the texts of the laws, presidential decrees and acts received for uploading, the issuance of the Internet Uploading Number, the reception and registration of the code number of publication and details of the Official Gazette in those cases where publication in the Official Gazette is provided for by the law, the technical details for the uploading in the websites of the entities and bodies obliged to proceed to the uploading according to the present law, the creation and operation of the website where the central uploading takes place, the creation and keeping of a central record.
Article 7
Availability of the issues of the Official Gazette
Paragraph 7 of article 15 of law 3469/2006 (Official Gazette 131 Α΄) is replaced by the following:
«7. All the issues of the Official Gazette are provided for free in digital form through the website of the National Printing House. The National Printing House may also on request, make available the issues of the Official Gazette in digital storage means.
A decision of the Minister of the Interior, Decentralization and e-Government shall settle the availability of the issues of the Official Gazette in a way that renders easy the search of the content and any other relevant issue.»
Article 8
Uploading of organizational charts and employee details
All public services or entities, the legal persons of public law, the entities belonging to the parapublic sector, the independent and regulatory administrative authorities, as well as the entities of the local authorities of first and second level should upload on their website the organizational charts and the structure of their services and units, the profile of their competences and posts provided by law, as well as the names, titles and contact details of the officers serving in those entities with any form of employment relationship.