Cabinet approves plans to create national civil protection mechanism

Cabinet on Wednesday approved plans to create a national civil protection mechanism, which will be directed by a civil protection coordinator.

President Nikos Christodoulides announced the approval of the plans after the day’s cabinet meeting, and stressed that “we launched this major reform in 2023 to restructure the sector, to strengthen the mechanism”.

“Our goal is to create an upgraded framework for coordination and cooperation of all involved services, under the national coordinator, based on European standards, for a more effective response to crisis incidents,” he said.

It is expected that the coordinator will be appointed by the interior minister of the day, with Christodoulides saying on Wednesday that until the bill regarding the position’s creation is passed by parliament, it will be filled by fire brigade chief Nikos Longinos.

The matter of the civil defence’s role gained salience in the aftermath of the wildfire which tore through the Limassol district and killed two people last summer, with presidential crisis management advisor George Boustras at the time promising that the civil defence will assume an “upgraded role” as part of the reforms.

He said that the reforms will see the civil defence’s staffing levels boosted, so as to see it become a force more aligned with civil protection forces in other European Union member states.

“We want two things; one is to strengthen firefighting capacity, so everyone goes under the same umbrella. Secondly, we want to see the whole picture. So that’s why civil protection is being strengthened,” he said.

To this end, he said that the civil protection force will have an increased firefighting capacity and a new organisational structure covering the entire disaster management response mechanism, from prevention and suppression to restoration.

Additionally, he said, the government had requested technical assistance from the European Commission in its devising of the plans.

“Technical assistance comes from the European Union through international organisations and various services, which come and advise based on international practice. They work with state officials to propose a solution that would be tailored to our own needs,” he said.

Regarding the creation of a national coordinator, he said the holder of the role will have a dual function: both bureaucratic oversight and operational responsibility.

Later, he called on politicians in parliament to come to a “national understanding” so that “regardless of government, regardless of parties, so that we can reach a solution that will be acceptable to everyone and that there is a mechanism”.