Filenews 1 July 2024 - by Fakis Makrides
With an allowance aimed at rewarding them and raising their morale, the members of the National Guard will perform their demanding duties in international waters from next July.
Regulations that are being finalized with a view to being voted on in the last plenary session of the parliamentary term, on July 11, include – among other things – a provision for the payment of a "navigation allowance" to members of the army who staff the crews of warships.
This development concerns members of the National Guard who are on board naval vessels and carry out missions, such as joint patrols off the coast of Lebanon with the Cyprus Police to deal with migratory flows.
These operations, which have been ongoing since mid-April at least 60 nautical miles off the coast of Cyprus and just off Lebanon, involve a National Guard vessel and one of the Port and Maritime Police. Members of the navy of the troop did not have any additional benefit unlike members of the Police.
The degree of difficulty
Since April 16, when the plan to prevent new migratory flows from Lebanon was implemented, as we are informed, there has been an issue with the duties of these members of the National Guard. Specifically, defense officials discussed the degree of difficulty of missions and the impact on naval members.
A vessel, apart from captain, lieutenant and engineer, is also staffed by members of the Underwater Disasters (OUK). The crews often operated under particularly difficult conditions. Suffice it to say that from last spring until today, in several cases vessels intended for coastal operations have been used. This inevitably increased the degree of difficulty of their mission. With coastal patrol boats on a mission beyond 24 hours, as well as those to prevent migratory flows, the degree of difficulty of this task was de facto increased. In addition, the journey time was longer.
€160.000 per year
According to the regulations discussed by the parliamentary defence committee last Thursday, the navigation allowance to be paid in total each year will not exceed €160,000. According to the regulation, the warship crew member allowance is divided into categories depending on the duties performed:
>> Allowance at sea for each sailing day
>> Allowance at bay for each day spent outside territorial waters
>> Anchor allowance for each day spent at anchor outside territorial waters
The chairman of the parliamentary committee, Marinos Sizopoulos, in last Thursday's discussion raised the issue of the provisions and suggested that they be made clearer so as not to ignore missions that may be within territorial waters (coastal), but operationally have a high degree of difficulty.
It will be reviewed
It should be noted that the amount of the allowance for each of the three categories will be determined and revised by decision of the Council of Ministers, upon the recommendation of the Ministers of Defence and Finance.
In addition, the allowance will be paid to members of the National Guard after the end of each semester, upon submission of a relevant list to the Ministry of Defense for approval.
The regulations for the "warship crew member allowance", as it is called, were drawn up in the standards corresponding to those applicable to the Hellenic Navy. An identical allowance has been paid for several years in Greece.
