The Council of State deemed legal the draft Presidential Decree which increases by 55 the positions in the upper echelons of Greek Police and at the same time the service time of the ranks to be promoted is reduced. In more detail, according to the draft decree, the organic positions at the rank of brigadier general will increase by 20, from the current 65 to 85, and at the rank of police director by 30, from the current 230 to 260.

At the same time, the minimum period of service of Police B’ general duties and Police B’ special duties that they must have in order to be promoted, is reduced from the current 8 years to 7 years.

Also, the time of actual overall service for promotion – regardless of the existence of organic positions – of Police Officers A’ from the 23 years currently foreseen to 20 years of total actual service and of Police Officers B’ from the current 15 years is reduced by one year , i.e. in 14 years of total actual officer service.

According to the opinion No. 78/2023 of the 5th Department of the Council of State, the draft Presidential Decree is accompanied by a document from the head of the headquarters of the Hellenic Army, according to which “the continuous changes in the insurance and pension system brought about increases in retirement age limits with the result that a large number of police officers remain stagnant in terms of rating, salary and in terms of their duties for many years of service at the same level, resulting in their stagnation and demobilization due to reaching the age limit, without giving them the opportunity to exhaust the hierarchy even though they come from the Greek Police Officers School”.

With the proposed regulations, according to the same document, “an attempt is made to establish incentives for staff development through the promotion outside organizational positions to specific grades by completing the required years of service, as well as the increase of organic positions to specific grades.”

The provisions of the draft Presidential Decree cause an additional financial burden of approximately 1,187,250 euros for the current year and approximately 1,701,000 euros for 2024 and for each of the following years in the budget of the Ministry of Citizen Protection.