On Monday 18 December 2023, the Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias, attended the opening ceremony of the newly built housing facilities for Hellenic Navy personnel, in Skaramagas Naval Fort.
The ceremony was also attended by the Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff, Vice Admiral Ioannis Drimousis HN, serving also as representative of the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff, General Konstantinos Floros, the Chief of Fleet, Vice Admiral Dimitrios – Eleftherios Kataras HN, the Deputy Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff, Vice Admiral Frangiskos Leloudas HN, the Commander of the Naval Training Command, Rear Admiral Polychronis Koulouris HN, Members of the Supreme Naval Council, and honorary Chiefs of the Hellenic Navy General Staff.
During his address, Mr Dendias stated:
“Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff,

Honorary Chiefs,
Dear guests,
Hellenic Navy personnel,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to attend the opening ceremony of the new military housing facilities at Fort Skaramagas.
First, apart from the personnel, which the Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff has already thanked, I would also like to thank my predecessor, Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos, because the greatest part of this work was carried out during his service.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I think that I made it clear in the Parliament, that the improvement of the living conditions of the Armed Forces personnel, is of high priority for the Ministry of National Defence.
We need to focus on covering their housing needs. Most of them occur due to their constant relocations, in order to fulfil the duty assigned to them by their country anyway. For this purpose, we have created a grand-scale housing programme for 1.400 residences, which is divided into four implementation stages.
We are at the final agreement stages with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, for the funding of the first implementation stage, which includes 500 residencies in 13 Aegean islands, where renting costs are rather high.
We estimate, that upon securing the funds needed, we can have almost all residencies ready for use, in the summer of 2026.
I am going to repeat the initial statement. In the framework of increasing the effectiveness of our country’s Armed Forces, the Ministry of National Defence assigns particular importance in improving the living conditions of the personnel, who constitute the main element of power in the Armed Forces.
Thank you very much”.