Christian Spahr, the European Commission’s spokesman on economic issues, said that the allocation of fiscal resources, including those earmarked for the management of emergencies, remains under the purview of Greek authorities.
Spahr was responding to a question about Italian press reports that said that Greece has cut funding of emergency services in the framework of its bailout programmes and of the cutbacks mandated by creditors.
Spahr said that in the framework of the adjustment programme, creditors agree with the Greek government on the entirety of fiscal targets, but the allocation of funds remains the competency of the Greek government.
Spahr said that the budget of the former public order ministry – currently known as the civil protection ministry – remained fairly stable since 2010.
He said the budget of the Fire Service increased slightly (by 3.6 percent), between 2010 and 2018.
Spahr also said that the number of firefighters in Greece remained stable between 2011 and 2018.
Spahr said that the Fire Service is exempted from the rules on the restructuring of public administration.
