Greece does not pre-approve your promotional material — but it does require you to file it, it bans advertising reimbursed medicines to the public, and it puts scientific events under a prior-approval regime with numerical caps that catch most companies out at least once.
The EU baseline
Title VIII of Directive 2001/83/EC, Articles 86 to 100, sets the framework. Article 86(1) defines advertising broadly — any information, canvassing or inducement designed to promote prescription, supply, sale or consumption — and expressly includes sales representative visits, samples, and the sponsorship of promotional meetings and scientific congresses, including travel and accommodation. Article 86(2) carves out labelling and leaflets, correspondence answering a specific question, factual announcements and trade catalogues without product claims, and information about health or disease with no reference, even indirect, to a medicine.
The core prohibitions: no advertising of an unauthorised product, and all advertising must comply with the SmPC (Article 87); no advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public (Article 88); no gifts or benefits to prescribers unless inexpensive and relevant to the practice of medicine or pharmacy, with hospitality strictly limited to the main purpose of the event (Article 94); free samples only on an exceptional basis, against a signed and dated written request, limited in number, no larger than the smallest presentation, marked as a free sample and accompanied by the SmPC (Article 96).
Where Greece goes further
Greece transposes these rules at Articles 118 to 132 of Ministerial Decision Δ.ΥΓ3α/Γ.Π. 32221/2013. Article 120 exercises the option in Article 88(3) of the Directive: alongside prescription-only medicines and products containing psychotropic or narcotic substances, Greece also prohibits advertising to the public of medicines reimbursed by the social security funds. That is a materially wider ban than the EU minimum, and it is the provision most often missed by teams importing a pan-European campaign.
Article 130(2) is the filing obligation. The holder must notify EOF of a copy of every advertisement it runs, accompanied by a note stating the recipients, the method of transmission or circulation, and the date of first use. Article 130(1) requires an in-house scientific service; Article 130(3) additionally requires co-promotion arrangements to be notified to EOF, with the holder remaining liable.
Filing, not pre-approval
This distinction matters commercially. There is no general prior-approval requirement for promotional material in the Greek framework. EOF operates a notification and deposit system with ex-post supervision: material is submitted to EOF’s circulation control department using its prescribed forms — separate forms for material addressed to healthcare professionals and to the public — sent by email to the EOF protocol address. Article 129 requires EOF to maintain effective means of controlling advertising and allows it to act against misleading advertising either preventively or after the fact, even without proof of actual loss.
The one advertising activity that is subject to prior authorisation is a vaccination campaign run by industry, which must be approved by EOF.
Scientific events: prior approval, with caps
Scientific events are a separate regime, governed by EOF Circular 45560 of 16 April 2025, in force from 1 May 2025, which replaced the previous circulars and rests on Article 31 of Law 1316/1983. Approval is required in advance, and the circular sets hard numbers:
- Company-organised events: a maximum of 40 per year; events may not be held in university or hospital premises, and companies may not organise events abroad.
- Sponsorship of a scientific body’s congress: up to €25,000 per company; one-day and two-day events up to €5,000 per sponsor.
- State bodies: up to €2,500 per company and €20,000 in total per event.
- Participant support: domestic accommodation up to €320 per day and meals up to €100 per day; abroad, €400 and €150.
- Each healthcare professional may attend at most three foreign and four domestic events per year; each sponsoring company may support at most ten professionals per European event.
- Applications are submitted through EOF’s online system at least eight calendar days before the event, or fifteen days for registration at a foreign event.
- Blackout periods run 10 July to 20 August and 20 December to 10 January.
- Satellite symposia need no separate approval but may not mention company or product names, and are capped at 20% of the programme, or 25% with clear justification.
- Advisory boards: up to five meetings per ATC level-3 category per year, capped at 20 domestic meetings annually and ten experts per meeting.
The reporting deadline is unforgiving: the activity report is due by 30 June of the following year, and a false or missing report carries a one-year ban, rising to two years on repetition.
Transparency and self-regulation
Under Article 66(7) of Law 4316/2014, companies must publish, by name, every transfer of value to healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations, on their own website and on the dedicated EOF site, within six months of the end of each calendar year. Alongside the statutory regime, the SFEE Code of Ethics — harmonised with the EFPIA Code, with a two-tier disciplinary committee whose decisions are published — governs member companies’ promotional conduct.
How PQRA helps
We review promotional and informational material against the SmPC and the Greek framework before it goes out, manage EOF filings and the scientific-events approval process within the circular’s caps and deadlines, build the transfer-of-value disclosure workflow for the June deadline, and train commercial teams on where the Greek rules diverge from the EU baseline.
Launching a campaign or a congress programme in Greece? Have PQRA review it first.
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