E-Government in Greece: Serving State's Economic Needs - Respecting the Fundamental Right to Data Protection

Due to the recent economic crisis Greece is facing, the government has developed several initiatives using information and communication technologies (ICT) in order to foster the economic growth, enhance trust and transparency in the operation of public administration, streamline the public expenditure and combat corruption and tax evasion. Such initiatives include: a) the “transparency project”, b) the electronic prescription, c) the publication of tax data on the internet, d) the use of a tax card and finally e) the eGovernment Law. As data protection is a fundamental right according to Greek and EU law, this paper aims at analyzing whether such initiatives pass the proportionality test and may justify “legitimate” restrictions of the aforementioned right and which particular data security and other measures may alleviate the restrictions occurred.