Organisational Structure

The General State Archives (G.S.A.) operates according to the provisions of Law 1946/91. It is an integrated and independent public service that reports directly to the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs set up by the Central and Regional Services (art. 8 of Law 1946/1991). It constitutes a united Public Service that includes the Central Service, the Prime Minister’ s, Ministers’, Deputy Ministers’ and General Secretariat of Government Archives and the 64 Regional Services.   

There is a corporate body titled “Supervisory Council”. The Corporate Body consists of the Chairman and eight members. The seven members selected have certified experience in archiving issues and have published archiving researches and studies of the Medieval and Modern Greek history, while the ninth member is the Supervisor of the authorised Department of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs responsible for the General State Archives. The Director of the General State Archives also participates in the Supervisory Council’ s meetings as an originator, without a voting right. The term of the Supervisory Council is set to a period of three years. The responsibilities of the Supervisory Council are determined in art. 35 and 36 of Law 1946/1991 (p. 6-7).

The Head of the Central Service of the G.S.A. is a government official who is titled “Director of the General State Archives” and is appointed by a Decree of the Minister of Education, Research and Religious Affairs with a three years’ term. The term can be renewed for another three years with a similar decree and with the opinion of the Supervisory Council (Law 1946/1991, art. 20, p. 5) as it was modified from the par. 14 of the art. 6 of Law 2909/2001 and from the art. 17 of Law 3467/2006).

The Central Service of the General State Archives operates as a Directorate and is structured as follows (Law 1946/1991):
  1. Indexing and Cataloguing Department (art. 11, p. 3)
  2. Appraisal and Disposal Department (art. 12, p. 3)
  3. Planning, Coordination and Studies Department (art. 13, p. 3-4)
  4. Secretariat and Accounting Department (art. 14, p. 4)
  5. Conservation and Reprography Department (art. 15, p. 4)
  6. Reading Rook and Library Department (art. 16, p. 4)
In the Central Service operates also the Prime Minister’s, Ministers’, Deputy Ministers’ and General Secretariat of Government Archives which was established as an independent Public Service with the Law 2846/2000 (art. 6) and was incorporated in the Central Service of the General State Archives with Law 3391/2005.
The 64 Regional Services (48 Prefectural Services and 16 Local Archives) operate according to art. 17 of Law 1946/1991 (p. 4-5).