Cyprus and Greece signed a protocol for the cooperation of the two countries’ fire services, on Monday, in Nicosia, which formalises and strengthens the existing cooperation of the two bodies while this joint effort is to prepare the ground for regional cooperation.
The protocol was signed by Cyprus’ Justice Minister Stephie Dracos and Greece’s Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Stylianides.
The protocol was drafted on Dracos’ initiative, after discussing it with Stylianides during a visit to Athens. She noted that, it includes a number of “important actions” that strengthen the already existing cooperation. “I think it is important because a new perspective is being created for Cyprus, to be part of a broader cooperation that will gradually expand and include other Mediterranean countries,” she added.
In his statements, after signing the protocol, Stylianides, who is the former European Commissioner for Crisis Management, said that, the cooperation protocol “establishes, while at the same time significantly strengthens an already existing cooperation which has been in place for years between the two bodies”.
He also noted that the two delegations have people with experience in the field, and that this protocol “is already registered in the minds” of the two fire services that have cooperated on many occasions both in Cyprus and Greece during wildfires and other disasters.
He added that this joint effort of the two fire services will be a background on which Greece and Cyprus, as the EU member states in the eastern Mediterranean region, will help to build a regional cooperation under the umbrella of RescEU, and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Stylianides also expressed the belief that, this cooperation and this protocol will provide opportunities to receive increased funding from European funds, which, as he said, are necessary to supplement the national budget for such difficult operations.
Source: Cyprus News Agency