General Secretariat for Civil Protection

No charges from emergency messages

The Greek government shot down reports that the state and customers would be charged for the text messages sent to Greek mobile phones in case of an emergency.
Government sources said the test on Saturday was conducted through an agreement between the Ministry of Digital Governance and the country's telecom providers.

Trial run of EU emergency number's SMS system 'successful'

A test run of the SMS system linked to the 112 European Union emergency number was conducted successfully on Wednesday by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection, Digital Policy Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said.

The trial run was focused on Syros with residents and visitors to the island receiving a text message as part of the test.

Inspections being carried out after Friday's Athens quake

Athens was jolted on Friday by a tremor measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale which, due to its shallow depth between 12 and 15 kilometers, was felt quite intensely by residents in the Greek capital and visitors.

Nonetheless, there were no reports of serious damages or injuries from the earthquake, whose epicenter was some 3 kilometers from the town of Magoula in western Attica.

Emergency hotline to be ready by year end, says minister

The European emergency number 112, which could have contributed to timely evacuations ahead of the deadly storms that pummeled Halkidiki on Wednesday night, will be up and running at the end of 2019, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis announced Friday, during a visit to the operation center of the General Secretariat of Civil Protection.

Greece to contribute 2 firefighting planes to EU program

Greece will participate in a new European Union program aimed at enlisting the help of member-states to respond to wildfires and other natural disasters, the country's General Secretariat for Civil Protection said on Tuesday.
Last month, the European Commission inaugurated its first fleet of firefighting aircraft under a new program dubbed rescEU without the participation of Greece.

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