Data on sites designated as shelters, to ensure the protection of the civilian population, has been transmitted to Parliament the Deputy Minister of State for Civil Protection Ioannis Lambropoulos, in response to a question addressed to him by the president of the Hellenic Solution Kyriakos Velopoulos.

Velopoulos had addressed his question to the Ministers of Civil Protection and Climate Crisis & Civil Protection and the Minister of National Defence and had asked to be informed what the current status of shelters is and whether there is an updated register of their location, capacity and readiness. Also whether inspections and maintenance had been carried out in recent years, what the results were and what the State’s plans were for upgrading or creating new shelters.

“During the current period of time, in all of the country’s Regional Units, 2,892 sites 2,892 sites have been designated as shelters, with a total capacity of 1,981,514 people (with the possibility of increasing this by 30%),” says the Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection, the first to respond so far to the president of Hellenic Solution.

“The protection of the civilian population in crises, whether natural disasters or emergencies due to geopolitical or military developments, is a fundamental obligation of the state,” the president of the Hellenic Solution said, noting that “the need to strengthen Civil Defence becomes even more imperative in view of modern dangers: high-intensity natural disasters, climate crisis, biological and technological threats and possible geopolitical tensions that may directly affect the He also said that Greece, as a member state of the European Union and NATO, is committed to strengthening the resilience of political structures and the capacity for coordination between civilian and military actors.

In his reply, the Deputy Minister of State for Civil Protection Ioannis Lambropoulos said that the Palaiki Defence Service – Civil Emergency Planning (P.AM. – P.S.E.A.), in the context of its mission, according to the provisions of Law 17/1974 (F.E.K. A’ – 236) and of Law 1097/1981 (F.E.K. A’ – 266), it is responsible for the Civil Mobilisation of the Ministry of Citizen Protection and the Civil Defence of the country and in this light, it ensures the protection of the civilian population – from enemy attacks in war – in shelters and suitable places for this purpose, which are made available on behalf of the regions of the country.

Mr. Lampropoulos points out that by a relevant decision of the relevant Regional Governor, in each regional unit (p.e.) of his area of responsibility, Committees are established, for a three-year term, with the purpose of finding and identifying new sites suitable to be used as shelters, and the aggregated lists of shelter sites, as they are formed by the competent Committees, are sent to the Service of the Ministry of Defence – P.S.E.A.

The Deputy Minister of State for Civil Protection also stresses that the Local Authorities are responsible for the maintenance of the existing public spaces that have been designated as shelters, while the owners are responsible for the maintenance of private spaces that can be used for other purposes – other than housing – provided that, if required, their preparation and operational use for the accommodation of the civilian population is ensured within 24 hours.