The bill of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection for the “Restructuring of Civil Protection – National Mechanism for Air Rescue and Air Transport and other urgent provisions” was passed by the Plenary by a majority from the ND.

The bill on the Authority and in the Assembly was voted against by all the opposition parties, with the exception of Plefsis Eleftherias which was placed with the “present”.

The ministerial amendment regarding the establishment of 16 Special Forestry Operations Units in the territory was voted for by ND, SYRIZA, PASOK-KINAL, Spartans. KKE and Niki voted against it, while Hellenic Solution, New Left and Eleftherias were voted in favor.

The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias, concluding the discussion of the bill, emphasized that it “focuses on prognosis and prevention. Civil Protection is being upgraded” and he added that “we are getting 10 new Special Forest Operations Units and now they amount to 16 throughout the Territory”.

The minister, responding to objections and points of criticism of the opposition MPs, clarified that “since 1984 when the law on air transport was in place, this is the one that is in force until today and it is needless to say that the SYRIZA government brought provisions for aid etc.”.

Regarding the rescue aircraft donations of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, he noted that “it is important and good that the SYRIZA government took advantage of them” but regarding “one of the three helicopters, this one had a heavy damage, i.e. a loss of more than 50% of the value of something that is operationally considered too difficult to repair and maintain. The SYRIZA government decided to take it to the ODA for repair and maintenance. What we told the Foundation and its experts accepted was to give a million more and get a new helicopter.”

Mr. Kikilias regarding the acquisition of aircraft that will be acquired from the AEGIS program or through the Hermes Theocharopoulos Rescue Center program and what else, said that “the Air Force has informed in writing that it does not have the ability to train so many pilots , engineers and whatever else is needed”. He emphasized that “we must take advantage of the possibilities that exist now both for the acquisition of aerial vehicles from the European tender and from the fact that the market prices as they have not yet increased much, at least as it is estimated to happen in the coming years when the phenomena of Climate Change will be greater and to obtain these means”.

The minister pointed out that “the +50% of helicopters used for forest firefighting in the summer as well as in the floods of Thessaly was achieved by renting private helicopters with private pilots and maintainers”. This, he clarified, “does not mean that we want to give these sectors to private individuals, but the need and the conditions are what dictate us to act in this way”.

Mr. Kikilias emphasized that “the Mitsotakis government has prioritized welfare and is organizing all the resources it has, which is why we have this momentum”. Regarding the 6 air transport bases, he said that “this year we have this possibility. I hope next year we can double them and we have many more.”

He said it is “an organization system that the richest countries in the world do” and it will be “a great achievement in a short time to go to a competition and see how many of these bases we can develop or how many more we can develop”. He clarified that “the planning of the six Airlift bases has been done by the official operational factors”.

The political leadership of the ministry, underlined Mr. Kikilias, “has the task of organizing it together with the assistance possibilities that were recently given to it. To run the program that until 31/12/2023 foresees tenders of 847 million euros for supplies but also to be able to use as many scientific bodies or scientific personnel as exist in the country to save human lives. Nothing more.”