The proposal to provide services to the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection through a programmatic agreement and/or with a relevant Memorandum of Cooperation, “without it being necessary for it to belong to the ministry, a fact which would have dramatic consequences for its status as a National Research Agency”, state among others in their decision the members of the Board of Directors of the National Observatory of Athens. At the same time, as emphasized among others in the relevant announcement “in this direction, the Board of Directors authorizes the president to send a letter requesting a meeting with the Prime Minister in order to express to him the concerns of the EAA Board of Directors as well as his proposals”.

The following is the entire decision of the Board of Directors of the National Observatory of Athens:

“The National Observatory of Athens strongly supports every effort of the State that contributes to strengthening the mechanisms for the protection of human lives, property, the environment, biodiversity and the economy. The involvement of everyone, State, Science, Local & Regional Self-Government, but also society in general, is necessary and imperative. However, in order to be effective and offer the maximum to the common goal, each agency should operate within the framework of its mission, obviously developing all channels of substantial cooperation with the co-competent agencies, something that the E.A.A. has proven that it works both nationally and internationally.

The basic and fundamental mission of E.A.A., as a National Research Center (notably the oldest in the country with a history of 181 years), is the preparation of basic and applied research, i.e. the production of new knowledge but also its transmission to society, in the sciences of seismology, geophysics, tsunamis, atmospheric physics and chemistry, environmental pollution, climatology and climate change, telecommunications and energy conservation technologies, meteorology, hydrology, terrestrial and satellite remote sensing, upper atmosphere and ionosphere physics, magnetosphere, solar, space and planetary sciences physics, astrophysics and cosmology, sciences most of which have no relevance to the scope of the Ministry of KK&PP.

Moreover, only a part of the wealth of knowledge produced at E.A.A. transforms into innovative tools and services, some of which relate to Civil Protection. And the efforts of E.A.A. for cooperation with the General Secretariat of Civil Protection in the past and recently with the Ministry of Climate Crisis & Civil Protection are timeless, systematic and documented.

The Members of the Board of E.A.A. agreed that the provision of services can be carried out through a programmatic agreement and/or with a relevant Memorandum of Cooperation, as the Research Centers systematically do with Ministries of their thematic relevance (e.g. the E.A.A. with the Ministry of Digital Governance or the ELKETHE with the Ministry of Shipping).

In this direction, the Board of Directors authorizes the President as sends a letter requesting a meeting with the Prime Minister in order to express to him the concerns of the EAA Board of Directors but also his proposals for an effective cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, within the existing and recently legislated institutional framework, without the need for the inclusion of the E.A.A. to the Ministry, a fact which would have dramatic consequences for its status as a National Research Agency. In addition, a meeting will be requested with the co-competent Ministers and the supervisory authority (GEK), in order to provide the necessary relevant information.

In any case, efforts will be made to preserve the legal status of EAA as an independent NPDD, supervised by the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Development”.