The support aids a multi-year Greek plan – AEGIS – to strengthen the country’s civil-protection mechanism. Greece was hit by deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018, and devastating wildfires in 2021 and 2023, as well as by catastrophic flooding in September 2023.
The investment is part of the EIB Group’s EU-wide Climate Adaptation Plan and follows an initial loan to Greece of €375 million in January 2021.
The new loan, along with the one in 2021, represents the first targeted direct EIB support for civil protection and disaster preparedness in Greece. It is also the largest amount of EIB aid for disaster management and response in Europe. The programme, to be implemented until 2025, will restructure civil protection in Greece to enable quicker responses, strengthened local preparedness and coordination and improved equipment.
Strengthening civil protection across Greece
The new support covers state-of-the-art equipment for the Hellenic Fire Service, including helicopters and aircraft to fight wildfires and conduct evacuations in medical emergencies.
Disaster prevention, preparedness and response will be transformed by the creation of 13 regional civil-protection teams and new communications networks and information-technology systems across the country.
Ensuring best practice in disaster prevention
Experts from the Greek government and EIB have been working together since the 2021 loan agreement and will continue to do so under the new funding accord to use best-practices from across Europe. That in turn will feed back into disaster-prevention measures in Europe.
“The EIB, through its Advisory Services Hub, and the Greek authorities will share best practices during the implementation of the investments and enable experience from this visionary scheme to benefit future projects backed by the EIB elsewhere,” said Kakouris.
Improving civil protection cooperation in Europe
This latest support will improve European coordination of civil protection and disaster response. Specialised equipment can be used to help other countries in times of need under the rescEU reserve. This enables firefighting planes and helicopters, planes for evacuating people in medical emergencies, and a stockpile of medical equipment and field hospitals from EU Member States to be deployed.