Filenews 1 February 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
Civil Defense, Police, Fire Brigade, Ambulances, Department of Forests, all in one. Patrol cars, ambulances, fire trucks on a screen, and all relevant services under one "umbrella" which, at the moment, has no name.
"We could call it the National Crisis Management Centre, we could call it the General Directorate, we could call it the Ministry of Civil Protection, we could call it the Independent Authority or whatever else is deemed appropriate based on the results of the study carried out by the organization providing technical assistance to the Republic of Cyprus," Georgios Boustras, professor and adviser to the President of the Republic on civil protection issues, told F.
"This is a reform that will lead us to a centralized crisis and disaster management system and will help develop the civil protection sector in Cyprus," he said and explained how the implementation of this reform is being promoted, stressing that the process has been ongoing for four months.
The first pillar is the evolution of the '112' system. The telephone line, which will now be of a new generation, "112 new generation", as it is called throughout Europe, and through it the movements of all competent services will be coordinated.
"The 112 hotline is still operational today. In other words, the citizen now telephones, his call is recorded, the competent authority is informed and he responds. A process quite time-consuming. With the new 112 things will change. At all times the Centre will know where ambulances, patrol cars are, what fire trucks are available, etc. In the process, all services will have their own centre, which will be interconnected with the central 112. With the new 112, they will be able to inform in alternative ways (e.g. by video call) our fellow citizens who for various – usually medical – reasons did not have the opportunity."
For example, "for ambulances, we will know where beds are available, in which hospitals, with which doctors, etc. so that the patient can be transported where it should be. With police cars we will know where each one is and could respond faster to a citizen's call. In other words, there will be a central coordination of all these services, through a common platform. All these services are still working together today, but in a time of crisis we see that there is a gap until there is the coordination that we really need."
In the same context, Mr. Boustras said, "the National Guard and the Coordination, Search and Rescue Center will participate, in cases where a crisis or disaster imposes it, and in this way we will have all the Services that are now responding or participating in an effort to manage a crisis, at the same point of coordination."
The second pillar of the reform is the modernization, upgrading and transformation of the current Civil Defence into a Civil Protection body.
"By combining the two, what we are trying to do is create a National Crisis Management Centre. It may be called otherwise but in any case it will act as an "umbrella" for all Services".
In Cyprus, "we have the Department of Civil Defence. Unfortunately, we note that after the Turkish invasion of 1974 we did not see any significant change in the way this department operated, the State did not make the necessary changes over the years. So now we come to modernize and transform Civil Defence into Civil Protection, according to the successful models of other European countries.
To this end, "the Republic of Cyprus has requested technical assistance from the European Union. The EU responded and provided this assistance through Expertise France. It is a state-owned company of the French state which specializes in these issues and carries out dozens of projects internationally. Permanent staff as well as experts from Expertise France have been with their own office in Civil Defence for about four months and this process is ongoing."
The aim of this whole process is "to create this "umbrella", which could have any form and name decided at a political level and its operation will be voted by law by Parliament, and through this entity all the services involved will operate jointly, since Civil Protection will now be managed by the Crisis Management Center or whatever it is called.
As part of this modernization, "the rest of the services will also be called upon to modernize. The Republic of Cyprus will certainly proceed with the acquisition of its own means of flight for fighting fires or for transport, etc. and accordingly the Police will proceed with its own modernization, the Fire Brigade the same, the ambulances as well, etc."
So, Mr. Boustras said, "we are talking about a huge project, a reform that in a few years will show us how important it is. To achieve this, we need to change everything we know and apply to date. We need to change procedures, we need to draw up a plan that will make our actions more concrete and more targeted and, above all, more coordinated and effective."
Secure statistical data and the Forest College
With the operation of "112 new generation", among others, Cyprus will acquire the ability to record statistical data which will be evaluated and decisions will be taken, if necessary. For example, "the need to acquire equipment may arise, the need may arise to transfer some ambulance stations or fire trucks to other areas or the operation of new stations." This is "another benefit that the Cypriot state will have from the whole reform".
Included in the big picture of the reform, however, is the Forestry College and the role it has to play. "All these changes create the need for education. The Forestry College, which has reopened, will proceed with the training and education of the existing officers of the Department of Forests and will then assist in the training of all other members of the involved Services".
Having said that, Mr. Boustras concluded, "we can easily understand how important and how complex this project is because in reality we will take many services that are currently operating, each in its own defined way, and put it under an umbrella of common coordination, maintaining their autonomy. In order to reach the final conclusions and the next steps, the ongoing procedures must first be completed and certainly the work of the experts of "Expertise France" must be completed, from whom we expect, among other things, the recommendations before any final political decision is taken. As far as the process for the implementation of "112 new generation" is concerned, the timetable is in 2026 so little by little we should expect the project to start moving towards completion."
