ATHENS — Greece's pioneer contribution in the address of the pandemic which has been acknowledged by Greece's European partners "many of them asked us to share with them our knowhow and experience" as well as the cooperation with the northeastern Mediterranean underlined Deputy Civil Protection and Crises Management Nikos Hardalias in a speech via teleconference at the 3rd Nicosia Risk Forum which is organised by the European University of Cyprus-CERIDES centre.

"The major lesson of the pandemic at international level was something that we, the people of the Civil Protection, already we are aware of, that we are all connected with the people next to us in both good and bad things," underlined Hardalias.

The issue of the organisation this year was the regional dimension of the Civil Protection in our region in the context of the pandemic.

Hardalias referred to the key role that the Civil Protection played in the coordination against the pandemic assuming the total responsibility of the coordination of all the agencies and entities.

Referring to Greece's contribution, Hardalias referred to the application form PLF that the travellers filled up while entering the country for which the European Council showed interest and it is examining the possibility to apply it at European level.

Finally, Hardalias made a special reference to the European Civil Protection Mechanism as well as to Greece's contribution to the creation of rescEU programme which promises an innovative approach for the protection of the European citizens from emergency conditions.

He also noted that Greece is always disposed to send help to any country in the region, implying also to Turkey, given it asks for its support.