Public Records

Public records constitute the overwhelming bulk of archival material and are the primary responsibility of the General State Archives (GSA).

According to the provisions of the Law 4610/2019 (article 161), public archives are defined as the archives produced by the highest state leadership, the Presidency of the Republic, the Prime Minister, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, the General Secretariat of the Government, the General Secretariat for Coordination of Government Work, the Ministries, Public Services, Judicial Authorities, Legal Entities under Public Law, Local Government Organizations, Legal Entities under Private Law, as well as other organizations and enterprises that fall within the public sector.

The same category also includes civil registry offices, notary offices, land registry offices, educational institutions, and institutions of the Greek diaspora.

Public Records Categories

a) Current

They include the totality of the documents, evidence, and records used daily to handle the ongoing affairs of a service, organization, or body, and are kept at the place where they were created.

b) Semi-current

They include records, evidence, and documents that are no longer considered active but cannot be disposed of because their legally required retention period has not yet expired. The General State Archives (GSA) monitor their proper maintenance by the producing service.

c)Non-current

They include the totality of the documents, evidence, and records whose retention period has expired, according to the legislation governing them, and which no longer have any official use for the producing body. The General State Archives (GSA) are required to receive them after the clearance process and retain the right to process them further.

d) Of Permanent Administrative Value

They include documents, testimonies, and records that remain active regardless of age. After thirty years from their creation, the General State Archives arrange to receive digitized copies, while deposit with the GSA becomes mandatory after sixty years.

Role of the GSA

If the GSA determine, following a complaint or report, that the preservation of public archives by the producing bodies is inadequate or that public access to them is difficult, they may request the immediate transfer of those archives to their services.

In addition, the records of public services that are digitized or transferred to another medium, in line with technological developments, are deposited with the GSA under the responsibility of the liaison officer referred to in paragraph 3 of article 193.