​Central

Civil protection is a shared competence of all levels of governance. The central Government is responsible for:

• The adoption of the National Civil Protection Plan (Xenocrates Plan);
• All ministries draw up special plans for dealing with disasters;
• The General Secretariat for Civil Protection is in charge of:
• Planning policies of civil protection and present them to the ministry of citizen protection;
• Coordinating with all relevant ministries in order to organize preparatory plans in case of emergencies and disasters;
• Approving regional and municipal emergency plans;
• Providing advice to the ministry of interior on how to fund the regional and local emergency programs;
• Organising training activities for all employees working on civil protection;
• Maintaining a registrar of all voluntary organisations working on civil protection;
• Promoting and supporting research projects, training and educational program on civil protection;
• Conducting crisis management by mobilizing forces, coordinating activities, mobilising and protecting citizens and repairing damages;
• Representing the country on all civil protection issues at the international level
• Applying for international assistance. 

The Inter-Ministerial Committee for National Planning, approves every 5 years, the National Policy for mitigating the risk of disasters.  

The central coordination body for Civil Protection is responsible for   following up and evaluating the annual national planning in regard to the response, recovery and rehabilitation of major catastrophes.

Regional

Regional authorities are responsible for:

• Regional special plans for dealing with disasters on the basis of the National Civil Protection Plan;
• The coordination and supervision of the work of civil protection services for prevention, preparation, response and disaster recovery within the territorial limits of the region;
• The implementation of the annual national planning for civil protection as far as the region is concerned;
• The submission of proposals for the regional civil protection for the annual national planning policy of the Inter-ministerial Commission;
• The submission of proposals to the Secretary General of Civil Protection for a decision declaring an emergency in cases of regional disasters;
• The decisions declaring states of emergency as far as small intensity local destruction is concerned, as well as the coordination of all the respective regional public or private mechanisms in order to ensure the full preparation in case of destruction and damage recovery;
• The planning and organisation of measures of prevention, awareness and response to disasters or emergencies;
• The decision on the requisition of personal services, securities and real estate;
• Cooperating with the competent bodies for the suppression of forest fires; and
• Granting of the annotation of The Hague Convention on service of documents in the region.       

The metropolitan region of Attica and of Thessaloniki have additional competencies regarding civil protection:

• The planning of emergency schemes;
• The establishment of a coordinative body responsible for the handling of emergencies;
• The handling of civil protection programs;
• The planning and organization of anti-fire protection schemes.

Local

Responsible ministries/bodies

General Secretariat of Civil Protection

Ministry of Citizen Protection

Sources

Reestablishment of the Ministry of Public Order and Civil Protection and its renaming in Ministry of Citizen protection according to Presidential Decree 86/18 (O.G. 159/ 29-08-2018)

Law 4249/14, Article 113.

European Commission portal, European Commission > Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection > Vademecum/Greece disaster management structure (Under Review)

Law 3463/2006 (OJ Α 114/30.6.2006) 'Code for Municipalities and Communities', Articles 75-76.

Law 3852/2010 (OJ Α 87/7.6.2010) 'Reorganisation of Local Government - Kallikratis  Programme', Articles 94 and 186.