The National Codification Portal (NCP) constitutes the electronic system for Better Regulation, aimed at shaping principles and means for improving the quality of regulations and their production processes. At the same time, it serves as the digital hub for legislation and codifications (both legislative and administrative). The primary goal  of the National Portal is to provide citizens, the legal community of the country as well as third parties who are recipients of legal information, with direct and free access to all legislative and regulatory texts, as they are currently in force. For that purpose, NCP follows international standards, aligns with the European Union’s tools and relevant matters of interest, while developing modules to address the specific needs of the Hellenic law-making process.

The National Codification Portal gathers all information related to the principles, standards and procedures for the simplification, codification, reform of the law and the evaluation of the results of regulations’ implementation. Its purpose is to support policies that enhance the internal coherence of the law, to improve the quality of legislative and regulatory provisions as well as their production processes and to systematically integrate the provisions into coherent sets of legal rules.

Collaborations and Involved Entities

The National Codification Portal collaborates and interoperates with:

• The Secretariat General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of the Presidency of the Government
• The Hellenic Parliament
• The Ministries
• The Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law-making Process and the Central Codification Committee
• The National Printing House
• The General Secretariat for Information Systems & Digital Governance
• The Ministry of Digital Governance

Challenges

The National Codification Portal is the result of collaboration among various public entities and relies on the alignment of these entities with procedural and implementation standards.

NCP aligns with the corresponding legislative portals of the European Union (EUR-Lex) and other member states (N-Lex).

Its use is expected to significantly enhance the standardization and pre-standardization of regulatory texts, facilitating access to legislation.

Its main objectives are as follows :

• The provision of immediate and reliable legal information to citizens, free of charge.
• The improvement of the quality of legislative and regulatory provisions, as well as their production processes.
• The systematic integration of regulations into coherent sets of legal rules.

The project includes:

• the completion of an ontology for the modeling of Hellenic legislation,
• the adaptation of Better Regulation standards to the new digital tool,
• the development of a mechanism for converting existing legislation into a consolidated form, compatible with the ontology,
• the development of an online portal featuring the consolidated legislation along with search and classification functionalities,
• the implementation of a series of IT tools to support regulatory production, fully compatible with the ontology,
• the functional integration of the above structural components.

What the National Codification Portal Aims to Address

Specifically, for the law-making process, including legislative codification, the National Codification Portal serves as a unified, standardized electronic tool for the regulatory process, based on the principles and standards of Better Regulation, as provided for in Law 4622/2019 on the Executive State and in the Better Regulation manuals of the Secretariat General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. Through the portal, principles and tools are developed to improve the quality of regulations and their production processes, aiming at their gradual standardization.

The platform also  serves as a tool for developing a unified methodology for the administrative codification of legislation, as well as for establishing a unified basis for the Hellenic law-making with thematic classification.

Project Identity

• Project:“National Codification Portal / Integrated platform for the regulatory process through evaluation and update of Better Regulation and legislative and regulatory process standards”
• Budget:€1,380,450.00 (plus VAT)
• Contracting Authority:Information Society S.A.
• Operating Entity: Secretariat General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
• Timeline:09/2021 to 12/2023 (duration: 28 months)
• Operational Program:Public Sector Reform
• The Project was awarded under Contract No. 1747/20-8-2021 to the Consortium “InDigital S.A. – INTRAWAY Ltd.”
• The Secretariat General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, which oversees the Independent Department of Administrative Codifications – Raptarchis as of June 2023, has contributed to the development of the National Codification Portal and played a pivotal role in the completion of the contract.