Vassilis Exarchos, President of The Nationwide Centre for Public Administration & Native Authorities (EKDDA), explains the primary steps Greece has taken in direction of digital transformation within the public sector and EKDDA’s essential function on this progress. In his interview for CEOWORLD journal, he reveals his imaginative and prescient for EKDDA within the coming years, structured round three strategic pillars.
The President of The Nationwide Centre for Public Administration & Native Authorities (EKDDA) holds two extra recognizable positions. He has been elected to the Steering Committee of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) and to the Board of Administration of the Worldwide Affiliation of Colleges and Institutes of Administration (IASIA)— beginning not too long ago to function its Vice-President for Europe.
Vassilis Exarchos, by means of his management, can make the distinction and go away his mark on EKDDA’s function and contribution.
Q: When the Nationwide Centre for Public Administration and Native Authorities (EKDDA) was based, and what’s its mission?
Vassilis Exarchos: The Nationwide Centre for Public Administration and Native Authorities (EKDDA), established in 1983, has served as Greece’s nationwide establishment for the coaching and abilities’ improvement of civil servants. Its mission is to repeatedly improve the data, competencies, and professionalism of civil servants and to contribute to a state that’s simpler, fashionable, and aware of residents’ wants. On the similar time, EKDDA invests within the manufacturing of evidence-informed data and the switch of European and worldwide greatest practices that help the broader transformation of public governance.
Its strategic ambition is to operate as a catalyst for administrative modernisation and to strengthen the standard of public insurance policies. Via focused coaching, utilized analysis, and shut cooperation with universities and public organizations each in Greece and worldwide, EKDDA helps form an administration able to addressing the advanced social and financial challenges of our time.
Inside this framework, EKDDA maintains sturdy partnerships with main Greek universities such because the Nationwide and Kapodistrian College of Athens and Panteion College in addition to with main universities overseas like LSE and INSEAD. These collaborations—starting from joint analysis initiatives to co-designed instructional initiatives—assist bridge public administration with modern educational experience, thereby supporting a sturdy studying ecosystem for civil servants.
Q: Greece is advancing its digital transformation in Public Administration. What are the important thing observations relating to this transition up to now?
Vassilis Exarchos: Lately, Greece has taken main steps ahead in digital transformation, with gov.gr standing as a flagship instance by consolidating 1000’s of providers inside a single digital portal. On the similar time, essential reforms have superior interoperability throughout data methods, the deployment of synthetic intelligence, the event of cloud infrastructures, and the upskilling of the public-sector workforce.
This transition, nevertheless, presents a number of challenges. Greece should additional deepen interoperability, bolster system resilience, strengthen the systematic analysis of reforms, and safeguard digital inclusion by making certain that no citizen is excluded as a result of restricted digital abilities. The outcomes are encouraging and stay extremely constructive: public administration has developed a transparent strategic route and a gentle tempo of digital implementation.
EKDDA performs an energetic function on this progress by strengthening digital abilities by means of fashionable coaching packages. Notable examples embody the “AI for All” initiative on synthetic intelligence, delivered in cooperation with Google, in addition to specialised digital-skills packages on cloud applied sciences applied with Microsoft. Via these initiatives, EKDDA helps the creation of a public administration that may successfully leverage rising applied sciences for the good thing about residents.
The Nationwide College of Public Administration and Native Authorities additionally performs an important function, as it’s at present creating a brand new curriculum centred on innovation, management, and the digital applied sciences that may form the administration of the long run.
Q: You had been not too long ago appointed as President of EKDDA. What’s your imaginative and prescient for EKDDA within the coming years?
Vassilis Exarchos: My imaginative and prescient for EKDDA is structured round three strategic pillars.
First, worldwide outreach and connectivity. We intention to place EKDDA as a real hub of data change and innovation with an energetic presence in international networks.
It was subsequently an honor for me to be elected to the Steering Committee of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) and to the Board of Administration of the Worldwide Affiliation of Colleges and Institutes of Administration (IASIA)—and not too long ago to start out serving as its Vice-President for Europe.
These networks are among the many most influential within the subject of public administration, and our involvement strengthens each EKDDA’s profile and Greece’s place in worldwide dialogue. It additionally opens pathways for deeper cooperation with main international establishments.
Second, digital and innovation in coaching strategies and instruments. We search to modernize the way in which public servants be taught and develop. This contains investing in modern coaching instruments, new blended-learning methodologies, and academic packages that put together the workforce of public administration for the following decade’s challenges. Our strategy integrates thematic workshops, policy-design laboratories, and conferences geared toward driving systematic enhancements in public providers.
Third, a public administration that focuses on an anthropocentric strategy for the civil servant. Human capital is the state’s most useful asset. Because of this, we place sturdy emphasis on coaching initiatives aligned with nationwide methods and with the framework launched by Legislation 4940/2022 on target-setting, efficiency analysis, and abilities improvement. We additionally contribute to the coaching required for the brand new Human Useful resource Administration System (HRMS), which can digitise HR processes throughout the whole public sector for the primary time.
A serious initiative now underway is the large-scale upskilling coaching program for 40,000 municipal workers, applied in cooperation with the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE). This program goals to reinforce the digital, administrative, and operational competencies of local-government personnel, finally bettering the day-to-day service expertise of residents.
Total, this imaginative and prescient just isn’t summary. It’s firmly grounded in EKDDA’s mission: to empower public-sector personnel, to help evidence-informed coverage making, and to behave as a driver of innovation all through the executive system. By combining fashionable studying instruments with worldwide experience, our purpose is to domesticate a brand new technology of leaders who will information the transformation of the Greek state with duty, transparency, and a powerful dedication to public worth.
Q: May you define EKDDA’s worldwide collaborations and the added worth that emerges from them?
Vassilis Exarchos: EKDDA maintains an energetic community of partnerships with main European and worldwide establishments within the subject of public administration. It participates in EGPA and IASIA as talked about above, the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), the Administrators of Colleges of Public Administration community (DISPA) of EU Member States, and key OECD networks such because the Nationwide College of Governance (NSG). It additionally sustains steady bilateral cooperation with faculties and institutes of public administration in France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and several other Western Balkan international locations.
The suggestions gained by means of these partnerships is invaluable. It allows EKDDA to include modern coaching strategies and instruments for grownup studying, superior coverage instruments, and examined worldwide practices into its trainings. In observe, these synergies act as a strategic mechanism that helps the professionalization of the civil service, strengthens the human capital in public administration, and facilitates the diffusion of innovation throughout the executive system.
Q: What, do you imagine, the Greek public administration of the long run will seem like?
Vassilis Exarchos: The Greek public administration of the long run might be extra digital, extra agile, and extra citizen-centred. Information-driven decision-making, synthetic intelligence, automated workflows, and digital service platforms will outline a brand new operational panorama. However, the human-centered dimension—management, empathy, collaboration, and the capability to deal with advanced issues—will stay indispensable.
EKDDA’s Institute of Coaching has already performed a transformative function by assembly key targets beneath the Restoration and Resilience Fund, having skilled greater than 250,000 civil servants by March 2026. This achievement confirms EKDDA’s central contribution to the event of a contemporary coaching ecosystem for public-sector executives.
Trying forward, I imagine public administration might be extra participatory, extra clear, and extra open to worldwide data. It is going to be grounded in high quality, accountability, and steady enchancment, making certain that it will possibly reply successfully to societal wants.
Inside this evolving setting, EKDDA’s function is prime: to organize civil servants with the technical abilities, administrative competency, and sturdy sense of public worth required to serve the general public curiosity. In essence, EKDDA helps the event of an administration that leverages know-how, invests in individuals, and retains the citizen at its coronary heart and thoughts.
