The bureaucracy faced by many Greeks when dealing with Australian consulates and embassies may soon be a thing of the past.

Greek Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Dendias said that the digital restructuring of the Foreign Affairs Ministry will begin with a pilot program to be implemented by the Greek Embassies in London and New York.

He said that services abroad would be transformed.

Speaking in Greek Parliament, Mr Dendias said that he and Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Constantinos Vlassis were introducing digital tools which will make their way to Greek government offices abroad in 2021.

READ MORE: Michalopoulos: Matters with the Greek Consulate in Melbourne will be dealt with quicker in the near future

Mr Dendias said that a “new era will begin for services” abroad.

Greeks in Australia will be able to enjoy the digital upgraded service.

Dimitris Michalopoulos, Consul General of Greece in Melbourne, said “complaints about the operation of the Greek consular authorities in various countries are, unfortunately, not a rare phenomenon and Australia is no exception”. Speaking with Neos Kosmos he said that the Consulate General of Melbourne has undergone a drastic reduction of staff. “From the double-digit number of employees before the financial crisis of 2010, our staff has been reduced to just five, who are called to serve a community of 150,000, which has requirements for fast and adequate service. As the current staff numbers stand, it is true, is not enough, as shown by the increase in requests to the registry office in 2019,” he said, adding that by the end of the year, two additional staff members would join the registrar and notary departments to offer faster processing of cases.

“Another problem in the operation of the Consulate General is the non-digitisation of procedures. For my part, I strongly supported the plan for the connection of the Consulate General with the Special Registry of Athens. When this is implemented, it will mean the real-time information of the Special Registry regarding the registration of registration events (births, marriages and deaths) and the avoidance of bureaucratic procedures for sending documents by diplomatic mail or at the expense of the citizen. I am pleased to inform you that the legal framework for the operation of the Citizens’ Registry, as the new program will be called, has already been approved and we hope, hopefully, to put it into operation soon,” Mr Michalopoulos said.

Digitization procedures will greatly help speed up services.