The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas and the Governor of the Region of Attica Rena Dourou signed the “Framework of Cooperation between the Ministry of National Defence and the Region of Attica on the enhancement of interoperability” at the Ministry of National Defence, on Tuesday, 21 February. The ceremony was attended by the Chief of HNDGS Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis and the Deputy Governor responsible for the Northern Sector Giorgos Karameros.

The cooperation, among other things, includes action related to the following sectors:

Digital Policy, Quality Infrastructure, Co-funded projects of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), Logistics, Culture, whereas it is possible also for other fields of cooperation and related action to be added following a proposal submitted by the Coordination Committee and the consenting opinion of the contracting parties.   

The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas stated:

“This is an important moment for both the Armed Forces and the Region of Attica. This cooperation already existed and had positive results. I am thinking of the national matter of the refugee issue, where the cooperation between the Ministry of National Defence, the Armed Forces and the Region of Attica was extremely effective. This cooperation will produce more fruits. For example, the issue of the management of Block 15 in Chaidari can now be fully implemented. Also, with a new legislative initiative, we can also consider cooperation which regards the field of healthcare and hospitals. Following an inspired programme by the Region and our own organization capabilities, the cooperation will be very effective in a period when what we ask for is to achieve too many things with few means. What we can add to these few things can become a very significant action.      

Our aim is to serve people, society, residents of the Region of Attica, the personnel of the Armed Forces and conscripts. The Region did not only respond, but launched this initiative as well, and we responded to something which is right and will prove its potential soon. This framework agreement can also guide us for the cooperation with other regions too, with military services with Civil Emergency Planning  and with a series of other services.”

The Governor of Attica Region mentioned, among other things:

“We sign a programming agreement which, as I wish to believe, will be a compass of cooperation over the next years between two high level institutions of the Hellenic Republic, the Ministry of National Defence and the Region of Attica. These are two institutions of the Hellenic Republic which can cooperate on a daily basis as equal participants in initiatives for building infrastructure, for digital policy, for the co-funded projects. It is a programming agreement which is based on an already successful cooperation. By signing this agreement today, we can talk about a methodological upgrade and a qualitative enhancement of the services that we can offer to our citizens. In other words, after this agreement has been signed the power of unity can produce results for everyone”.