The Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, following the recommendation of the Government Committee for State Aid, announces the extension of the submission of first aid applications, with the immediate amendment of the relevant joint ministerial decisions.

Particularly, July 2023 bushfire first aid applications extendeduntil August 31, 2023, in order to provide sufficient time to those affected to submit applications.

At the same time, in relation to first aid against housing assistance, the milestone date for taking into account assets is amended to 14 August 2023, in order to take into account recent changes in assets for owners of affected buildings.

It is recalled that the application is submitted through the electronic platform arogi.gov.gr which operates with the contribution of the Independent Public Revenue Authority. Applications may be submitted by:

For first aid versus grant, businesses and non-profits affected by the July 2023 wildfires and for first aid versus housing assistance, property owners affected by the July 2023 wildfires.

It is clarified that for the granting of first aid against a grant, the data of the applications will be preceded by cross-checking with the data submitted to the relevant region for assessment and recording of damages by the state aid committees. Accordingly, for the granting of first aid for housing, the data of the applications will be preceded by cross-checking with the data of the re-inspection reports and the autopsy reports of the competent services of the General Secretariat for the Rehabilitation of Natural Disasters and State Aid for the classification of the buildings.

It is emphasized that the amount of the first grant aid received by each business is offset against the amount of the final grant, as it will be determined by the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, after the registration of damages by the state aid committees of the Region. Accordingly, the amount of the first aid for housing that each owner receives is offset against the amount of the final housing assistance, as this will be determined by the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection with a relevant decision on the demarcation and granting of housing assistance.

It is pointed out that, both for the first aid against housing assistance, and for the first aid against a grant, in the event that the recipient of the aid submits a false declaration or does not submit a relevant file to the competent services or is not finally deemed a beneficiary or the amount to which he is entitled is smaller, the return of the total amount or the excess amount to the Greek State is foreseen.