Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired an interministerial meeting today with representatives of the Greek Resilient Cities Network, aimed at improving cooperation between government and municipalities to strengthen the resilience of cities and suburban areas, particularly in civil protection matters.
During the meeting, the importance of exchanging views between central government and local administration was emphasized for formulating policies that protect citizens, while ways to strengthen constructive cooperation were discussed. New civil protection means and tools were evaluated, such as the new Risk Map currently being developed, which will scientifically record the risk gradation for forest fire outbreaks.
Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Giannis Kefalogiannis presented the benefits of adopting the new Map, adding that work on its preparation is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
The possibility of the Network undertaking detailed recording of firefighting equipment, work vehicles, and trained volunteers available to each municipality across Greece was also examined.
This way, it will be possible to create a database that will allow both “mapping” of local administration capabilities and better planning of future procurements to cover any gaps, based on each area’s needs as reflected in the Risk Map.
Network members presented proposals for more effective prevention of natural disasters, especially fires, using municipal resources, as well as for better response by local government organizations in crisis situations.
Among the proposals discussed were establishing local crisis management centers that could cover the responsibility area of individual municipalities or groups of municipalities, better preparation of local government organizations in civil protection, and upgrading training for municipal employees tasked with ensuring resilience.
During the meeting, it was emphasized that despite particularly difficult fire weather conditions this year, burned areas in Greece since the beginning of the year are approximately 4.5% less compared to the average of the past 20 years. Conversely, the European Union shows an increase of 208% compared to the 2006-2024 period average.
With this data, it was stressed that beyond the broader strengthening of the country’s fire-fighting capabilities in recent years, better cooperation between central services and local government organizations produces significantly positive results.
Mitsotakis: Significant progress has been made, but our obligation is to continuously improve
At the meeting’s opening, the Prime Minister noted: “Welcome, I found the initiative you have undertaken very interesting, as the concept of resilience must now enter all public policies.
I want you to know that in principle we cannot understand this concept except in cooperation with local government, especially on civil protection issues, where I think we have made significant steps to institutionalize much better cooperation.
I want to express my satisfaction because many of the fertile, innovative ideas we have now incorporated into our central planning came from local government initiatives, for example, issues like aerial surveillance of areas dangerous for forest fires.
So I am very interested in following these initiatives you have undertaken, to see how we can better institutionalize our cooperation with specific measurable results.
And of course, since we are essentially near the end of the fire season – I hope the rains are welcome for many different reasons – we will have the opportunity with the Minister to make an overall presentation. However, the balance in Greece compared to what happened in Europe was undoubtedly positive. We are moving around the twenty-year average, when in Europe I think triple the areas have burned on average compared to the twenty-year average.
In a very difficult year, that is, we managed to have results comparable to other years. This means significant progress has been made, but obviously it is our obligation, especially in civil protection matters, to continuously improve.”
The meeting was also attended by Interior Minister Theodoros Livanios, Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Giannis Kefalogiannis, and Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Thanasis Kontogeorgis.
