“With the General Secretariat for the Protection of Critical Entities, we strengthen the defense of our state, society and citizens against future challenges,” declared Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis at the Parliament plenary session.
He emphasized that “the political dimension of the Bill is that we are called to address extremely large risks to society, to the security of our country and our cities, and that the better prepared we are on the basis of a National Strategy, the more effectively we protect society, infrastructure and the nation.”
Presenting the Ministry’s bill titled “Identification of critical entities, designation of the General Secretariat for the Protection of Critical Entities of the Ministry of Citizen Protection as competent authority and single point of contact – Supervision of compliance, imposition of measures and sanctions – Transposition of Directive (EU) 2022/2557 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on the resilience of critical entities and repealing Council Directive 2008/114/EC and other provisions,” the minister spoke of two basic priorities it introduces.
The designation of the General Secretariat for the Protection of Critical Entities of the Ministry of Citizen Protection as the National Authority and single point of contact for critical entity resilience and the drafting of a National Strategy for critical entity resilience.
Chrysochoidis on new bill: “It primarily addresses the concept of physical security”
“In recent years we have taken significant steps to say that we have the ability to approach risks and threats that can create enormous consequences… Resilience is what determines a country’s viability, a society’s endurance and the ability of the state and its mechanisms to manage all these major crises, which unfortunately break out more and more frequently during our days as a result of climate change and not only,” Minister Chrysochoidis noted, among other things in his speech.
Furthermore, the minister emphasized the need to establish rules according to which, as he said, “representatives of critical entities will be obliged to invest in such a way as to continuously increase their resilience. And a framework of rules where there will be supervision, monitoring, control, precisely of this concept and the great importance we attach to resilience.”
Finally, he noted that this particular bill primarily addresses the concept of “physical security.” That is, physical and man-made risks related to cross-border activities, accidents, natural disasters, emergency situations, hybrid threats and simultaneously threats originating from humans, such as terrorist threats and attacks.
The Minister of Citizen Protection referred specifically to provisions included in the bill with emphasis on the recruitment of Special Guards, as well as salary issues for security force employees.
