Minister, General Secretaries, Prefector, Mayor, Public Prosecutors, Chiefs, Vice-Presidents of Departments, Vice-Mayors, Representatives of the Armed Forces and Forces of Security, Representatives of all Bodies, Organizations and of G.E.F.Y.R.A SA.
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to Patra and to this room hosting our exercise.
It is a great honour for us that you have accepted our invitation to take part, either as Observers or as Players, in this exercise under the code name RION-ANTIRRION 2006, jointly organized by the Hellenic Police Force Headquarters and G.E.F.Y.R.A SA, under the guidance of the Ministry of Public Order.
All involved bodies have developed a fully-fledged cooperation to prepare this exercise, led by the Exercise Planning Team of the Hellenic Police Force, which is widely considered to be the body with precious valuable know-how and experience in the field of readiness exercises, both on paper and on real-time, acquired from preparing the Olympic Games Security Planning.
I have the opportunity today to let you know that, in order to profit from this Olympic Games acquis, the Exercise Planning Team has integrated the new Crisis Management Division of the Hellenic Police Force, thus constituting a useful top-ranking tool of the Hellenic Police Force Headquarters.
The principal mission of this new Division is:
On one hand, to prepare police readiness and response, through training, exercise, plans and assessments of real cases, and
On the other hand, to provide consulting and support to the critical decision-making bodies while managing cases of paramount importance.
Today is, in essence, a landmark for the Crisis Management Division, since it inaugurates its operation with this exercise; before the Athens 2004 Olympic Games it was a team and in the post-Olympic period it became an integral part of the Police Force.
Our political leadership has provided us with unlimited aid and with the support from all the domestic security authorities. This is why we will proceed with our exercise programme, on paper and then on real-time, in order to reach the climax of this training and operational process.
In my capacity of Chief of the Hellenic Police Force, I would like to declare that the Exercise Planning Team is available to respond to the demands from other authorities and to provide cooperation and aid in the latters planning for their own exercises, in their own fields of interest.
In addition to that, I would like to seize this opportunity to let you know that, following the approval of the Public Order Ministry, the Hellenic Police Force Headquarters shall undertake various initiatives to jointly organize exercises with countries from the Balkans, the South East Mediterranean and the European Union, regarding issues that are currently tormenting our free societies, such as illegal immigration, organized crime, human trafficking and exploitation etc.
All these inter-sectorial exercises offer added value. They fully respect the institutional role of the parties involved, while they also provide the opportunity for the different executives to meet, to cooperate, to exchange experiences on common and significant aspects of security.
In case real incidents needing to be managed occur, such executives will have the comparative advantage not to be complete strangers between them and that they will definitely know what each and every one of them can and should do to respond in a coordinated and efficient way.
Let me thank at this point the executives from G.E.F.Y.R.A SA, for their significant participation in the organizational aspects of this exercise. I should also make special reference to the help from the General Secretariat of the West Greece Region.
Let me wish you a lot of success in this exercise, which will not be completed tomorrow; it will end when it is fully assessed and evaluated. Evaluation is a very important part of the process that can help maximize the benefits of the Bridges Security Planning and that can improve all future exercise.
Your presence here with us today, Minister, is a great honor to the Hellenic Police Force Headquarters and to all the parties involved, which participate in this endeavor with a high sense of duty, with enthusiasm and professional attitude. Your presence here today is also encouraging and symbolic, claiming for more initiatives of this kind from the Hellenic Police Force Headquarters, aiming at inter-sectorial, inter-service, cross-border and transnational police cooperation.
With these thoughts, I would like to kindly ask you to take the floor and declare the opening of the works in the context of this Exercise. Thank you.
