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- Ελληνικά
The setting in the "Faros" building on Kifissia Avenue, where the Civil Protection headquarters is located, is quite futuristic. At least by the standards of buildings housing Greek public services. Crossing its threshold and leaving behind the bustling central avenue of the capital, you think you are in a modern European environment, which may explain how a politician from the European salons, such as the Cypriot former Commissioner Christos Stylianides, was persuaded to leave Brussels and come to the Greek threshing floors to deal with the natural disasters of all kinds that are increasingly common in our part of the world.
The picture one sees on the premises of the newly created Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, which is headed by Mr Stylianides, can in no way be compared to the previous headquarters of the same department, which was in a building that was said to be uninhabitable even after a moderate earthquake. "Just the picture," say those familiar with the limited changes brought about by the Civil Protection Department's move to the new, state-of-the-art facility.
With 38 all and sundry employees, no specialized scientific staff of its own and no equipment, the giant we all fantasize about moving in any outbreak of natural disaster, with its current structure, can do very little beyond issuing warnings and precautionary instructions to citizens.
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The recent experience with the snowfall that hit Attica three weeks ago highlighted the major shortcomings and chronic pathologies of the mechanism responsible for protecting citizens from weather and other natural phenomena (floods, fires, earthquakes, etc.). Moreover, neither the high-definition cameras installed in the operations centre a year and a half ago, nor the most recent upgrade of the former General Secretariat to a ministry with a heavy name could have radically changed the situation.
"We were looking for oil"
When the operations centre has no direct contact of its own with the field in which the problem to be solved has arisen and relies on mobile phone communications, the effectiveness of intervention can only be limited. All the more so when the Ministry of Climate Crisis also has limited coordinating powers, the effective exercise of which is left to the patriotism of local authorities and private citizens who must mobilise in order to avoid endangering property and human lives.
What happened during the recent wave of bad weather, euphemistically called "Elpis", is highly characteristic, say those living in the "Lighthouse" building. Attica Road officials assured before the outbreak of heavy snowfall that there was absolutely no need to close the road. According to them, they had 37 snow ploughs that would be put into operation as soon as the snow started to fall. Mr Stylianides and his colleagues had, as they say, no reason to dispute what they were told by the road managers, who were the only ones who had a view of the situation through the cameras, but afterwards they tried to blame the traffic police for not stopping the entry of the vehicles they should have asked for!
The most grotesque of all, however, was that the Attica Road snowplows did not show up at the crucial times when they had to open the road because they ran out of fuel! "I was present at the Crisis Management Centre when the Deputy Minister for Civil Protection, Lefteris Economou, searched and found 200 litres of oil for the company's snowploughs to come out around 5-6pm," recalls Stylianides. "Well, I could not check myself, as some people told me in those days, whether such a large organization had procured fuel to move its vehicles," he tells interlocutors. "I have been involved in handling the most unlikely crises all over the planet, but this is something I never thought I would experience! And there's no manual that prescribes what a minister does in such situations."
I wonder if he goes and checks the tanks one by one? I don't think so," he adds. In addition, he cites the example of the New Road, which cooperated flawlessly with the Civil Defence and no vehicle was trapped there. In the last three weeks since the snow event in the capital, a number of posts have come to light, mainly on the Internet, showing Mr Stylianides to be "under steam". Some "want" him to be dismissed by the Prime Minister in order to reinstate Mr. Nikos Hardalias or, alternatively, to abolish again the ministry created in the autumn and transfer Civil Protection to the competence of the Ministry of Defence. Others "appear confident" that the Cypriot politician is ready to leave the ministry to return to Cyprus and run for the presidency of the country.
In Kifissia Avenue they consider both versions "amusing", although at least some of them believe that they may be driven by interests seeking access to control situations and especially to influence the allocations of large funds that are scheduled to be made in the next period in order for Greece to acquire a modern and effective Civil Protection.
"I smell that I am being "hit on" for the €1.7 billion of the Aegis programme", the Cypriot politician confided to his entourage. "Aegis", which has already received the approval of the GSC since June last year, is a giant programme for the total upgrade of the Civil Protection Mechanism in our country with a budget of €1.7 billion, funds coming from the European Investment Bank (€595 million from the European Investment Bank).), the Recovery Fund (408 million) and the NSRF 2021-2027 (714 million).
This includes, among other things, the procurement of modern instruments and intelligent systems (radar, etc.) for the prevention, processing and monitoring of critical data related to natural disaster phenomena. The procurement of new airborne means (planes, helicopters, drones), state-of-the-art vehicles, floating rescue equipment, etc. is also envisaged to strengthen the forest fire-fighting sector, as well as for timely intervention in other situations where citizens are at risk. The construction of 13 Regional Operational Civil Protection Centres, implemented through PPPs, will also be financed. As well as training programmes that will be implemented by the Civil Protection Academy (soon to open its doors in Vilia, Attica) and will be addressed to volunteers, public administration and local government officials and citizens.
"I know how the street works"
"People may complain that I don't know the Greek reality well, but they should know that I am old in politics and I know how the street works."
"I may be told that I don't know the Greek reality well, but they should know that I am old in politics and I know how the street works."
"I may be told that I don't know the Greek reality well, but they should know that I am old in politics and I know how the street works. Besides, I have proven it with the pile of funds I handled as a commissioner, but also with the resignation I submitted in 1999 from the Clerides government protesting the handling of corruption allegations against a minister who was later jailed," he says. Indeed, his colleagues add that one of the reasons why his term in the Commission was not renewed in 2009 was because he clashed with the Anastasiades government over "golden visas" for foreigners, which then turned into a major scandal.
"I came to Athens to stay and work, as the prime minister asked me to do," Stylianides says. People close to him clarify that "there was no mediator for his ministerial appointment, since he and Kyriakos Mitsotakis have personal acquaintance and direct contact. They first met in 2004, when as an envoy of Glafkos Clerides he came to Athens to brief Konstantinos Mitsotakis on the Annan Plan. Many meetings followed in the following years when the current Prime Minister was Minister of Administrative Reform and had the late Dimitris Stefanou as his partner, who was on friendly terms with the Cypriot politician who was then appointed Commissioner."
The rescEU and the new Canadair
Their contacts continued last summer when the major fires were unfolding. Stylianides, who was on holiday in Thessaloniki, contacted the prime minister putting himself at the disposal of the government, which was seeking fire-fighting assistance from abroad, especially from Europe. His major achievement, after all, while he was commissioner was the European rescEU system for natural disaster response through which financial incentives are given to EU member states to improve the prevention of natural disasters and strengthen their national protection measures.
Based on the current planning, Greece will very soon take delivery of two Canadair fire-fighting aircraft, which will be produced with 100% European funding, in addition to the five Canadairs that will be delivered subsequently and paid for from national resources. Also, especially this year, in addition to the helicopters that we lease every year, the Civil Protection will have at its disposal two helicopters from the rescEU fleet that will be stationed in Greece, which will act as the hub of the mechanism for the wider region. With these additional forces, but also better organisation and coordination of all functions, the limited number of staff at the disposal of the Minister of Climate Change is optimistic that things will go better this summer with the fires.
Cyprus and ambition
What about the scenarios that see him leaving to contest the Cyprus Presidency in the February 2023 elections? "They have no basis," his associates say. They do not hide, however, that he is talking to several people and from different factions in Nicosia. Nor that he has accepted indirect overtures to announce himself as a future foreign minister because that would give a boost to the presidential candidate who would secure such an endorsement. On the other hand, however, at this stage his firmly held views in favour of the immediate need for a solution to the Cyprus problem do not seem to prevail.
But they are views that he considers experiential as he grew up next to the "green line" of Nicosia and spent most of his childhood summers in free Kyrenia. And they are views expressed by him both during the period of the Annan Plan and the recent talks in Crans Montana, which put him at odds with President Nicos Anastasiades.
That is why it is unlikely that his last ambition in politics will be fulfilled, which is to elect a President in Cyprus who will use the opportunity he has to reunite the island and for Mr Stylianides to return to Brussels for just two years as a Commissioner appointed jointly by Greek and Turkish Cypriots. He is, after all, 63 years old and he emphasises this unequivocally to their interlocutors: "In five years, that is, when I turn 68, I will retire from public affairs."
Source: protothema.gr
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