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Cabinet Decisions: Civil Defense Shelters, SafeCy Alerts, and National Protection Mechanism

Published March 11, 2026, 12:23
Cabinet Decisions: Civil Defense Shelters, SafeCy Alerts, and National Protection Mechanism

The Council of Ministers decided to grant a building incentive to increase the number of shelters, while inspections of Civil Defense shelters have been completed. The inspections revealed that 194 shelters are unsuitable or no longer exist, while the usage status of another 288 has changed and are now privately owned. The process of removing unsuitable and private shelters from the application is underway. The “Civil Protection Law of 2026” was also approved, creating the institutional framework for the establishment of a National Civil Protection Mechanism and institutionalizing the National Civil Protection Coordinator. The Chief of the Fire Service, Nikos Longinos, was appointed as the interim coordinator for fire management. At the same time, the new functionality of the SafeCy application was presented, which allows sending alerts in case of a security incident, as an additional measure for early citizen information. The Minister of Interior, Konstantinos Ioannou, pointed out that the policy of creating shelters in existing private spaces since 1999 has significant weaknesses. The government is now prioritizing public spaces, such as underground parking lots, churches, and supermarkets, for the creation of shelters. With this new methodology, a larger percentage of the population is expected to be covered, despite the fact that the total number of shelters will be smaller.