Article 24(1)(a) - languages accepted by the Member State for the public documents to be presented to its authorities pursuant to point (a) of Article 6(1)
Pursuant to Article 6(1)(a), the accepted languages are Greek and English.
Article 24(1)(b) – an indicative list of public documents falling within the scope of this Regulation
Public documents falling within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 are:
Responsibility of the Ministry of Justice:
- the ‘absence of criminal record’.
Responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:
- certificate of registration of birth, relating to birth and relating to the adoption of an adult (the adoption of a minor is secret and is not recorded in an administrative document)
- birth certificate, relating to birth, relating to the fact that a person is alive, and relating to the name of a natural person
- death certificate, relating to death
- marriage certificate, relating to marriage and relating to divorce, legal separation and marriage annulment
- civil status certificate, relating to civil status, divorce, legal separation, marriage annulment, parenthood, nationality, registered partnership and relating to dissolution of a registered partnership
- marriage licence, relating to the capacity to marry
- registered partnership certificate, relating to registered partnership and relating to the dissolution of a registered partnership
- certificate of nationality, relating to nationality
Article 24(1)(c) – the list of public documents to which multilingual standard forms may be attached as a suitable translation aid
certificate of registration of birth, birth certificate, death certificate, marriage certificate, marriage licence (capacity to marry), civil status certificate (marriage information must be provided in cases of marriage and registered partnership information must be provided in cases of registered partnership), registered partnership certificate, certificate of nationality.
As for the certificate of absence of a criminal record, there are no country-specific entry headings except for those contained in the standard part of the multilingual forms that is common to all Member States.
Article 24(1)(d) – the lists of persons qualified, in accordance with national law, to carry out certified translations, where such lists exist
In cases of nationality and the issuing of marriage licences, the appropriate authorities of municipalities accept official translations of foreign documents by:
- the Translation Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or
- an authorised permanent civil servant of the Greek consular authority in the issuing country, or
- a graduate translator of the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting of the Ionian University, or
- a Greek lawyer who fulfils the conditions set out in Article 36 of Law 4194/2013 of the Lawyers’ Code (Government Gazette, Series I, No 208).
For the rest, there is no list of persons authorised under Greek law to carry out certified translations.
Article 24(1)(e) – an indicative list of types of authorities empowered by national law to make certified copies
The authorities empowered to make certified copies of Registry Office acts are the Registrars who issued them. There is no provision for the issuing of copies of the certificates issued by Greek population registers, since citizens request each time as many certificates as they are required to submit to the various authorities.
The certificate of absence of a criminal record is issued as follows: i) for persons born in Greece, the certificate is issued by the Court of First Instance Public Prosecutors' Offices of their place of birth, and more specifically by the Criminal Records Department , whereas ii) for persons born abroad or for persons whose place of birth cannot be verified, the certificate is issued by the head office of the Ministry of Justice and more specifically by the Department for Criminal Records and Pardons.
Article 24(1)(f) – information relating to the means by which certified translations and certified copies can be identified
i. In order to be considered valid, a translation of a foreign language document must also include, as an attachment, the original document or a certified copy of the foreign language document. Additionally:
A. in the case of translations by the Translation Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the translator must certify that the (translated) document in question is a faithful translation of the attached document; the translator’s signature must be authenticated by the above Translation Service; and the document must bear a Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp at the point where its pages join. In addition, the translated document must include the Translation Service’s information, and in particular the words ‘OFFICIAL TRANSLATION’ must appear in Greek, English and French in the header of every page; the header must also include the number of the file which is kept at the Translation Service; and the footer must include the Service’s information, namely ‘HELLENIC REPUBLIC, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TRANSLATION SERVICE’, likewise in Greek, English and French,
B. in the case of a translation by a lawyer, it must be certified that the (translated) document in question is a faithful translation of the attached document, and that the lawyer has an adequate knowledge of the language from and to which they translated; and the document must bear a stamp of the lawyer at the point where its pages join.
C. in the case of translations by a consulate or embassy, it is sufficient that the translation originates from these authorities and is certified by them, irrespective of the translators’ identities and the nature of their relationship with the consulate or embassy.
ii. For a copy of the certificate of absence of a criminal record to be considered valid, it is sufficient for a certified user of the National Criminal Records information system to have printed it. The authenticity of every copy of a certificate of absence of a criminal record can be verified by cross-checking its ‘verification code number’ (unique identifier), its reference number and its date of issue with the information that can be found on the National Criminal Records Portal at http://www.ncris.gov.gr/portal/page/portal/epm and in particular with the ‘Criminal Record Verification service’.
Article 24(1)(g) – information about the specific features of certified copies
Only the Registrar may make certified photocopies of the Registry Office acts that will be attached to multilingual standard forms. These certified photocopies must bear the Registrar’s signature and a stamp of the municipality that issued the document in question.
The specific features of copies of certificates of absence of a criminal record are the verification code number, the reference number, the date and the watermark on the form.
