GREECE: Ambassador Speckhard's Meeting with Hellenic Coast

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SUBJECT: GREECE: Ambassador Speckhard's Meeting with Hellenic Coast
Guard Commandant Bousios


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: During a 50-minute meeting on 20 January Vice
Admiral Bousios spoke to Ambassador Speckhard about the ongoing
reformation of the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG),which he has headed
since late November 2009. Bousios said that the HCG was being
reorganized to resemble the U.S. Coast Guard. It would focus only
on maritime border security; its other functions under the former
Ministry of Merchant Marine and Aegean Island Affairs would pass to
the Ministry of the Economy. The decision to fold the HCG into the
recently created Ministry of Citizen Protection was to foster
cooperation and jointness across Greece's non-military security,
intelligence, and police agencies. Illegal immigration is an
enormous problem and burden for Greece. It ultimately requires
political solutions, particularly with Turkey, but meanwhile the
HCG is leading the effort to seal Greece's exits to Europe in order
to deny individual immigrants and the smuggling rings that feed off
of them the chance to achieve their ultimate goals. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) On 20 January 2010 the Ambassador met for 50 minutes with
the Commandant of the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG),Vice Admiral
Athanasios Bousios, at HCG headquarters in the port of Piraeus.
This was the first in a series of meetings by the Ambassador to
hear from senior Greek officials about the ongoing reorganization
of Greece's security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies
under the umbrella of the Ministry of Citizen Protection (MCP),
which was formed in October 2009. Bousios became commandant of the
HCG on November 27, 2009, when the previous commandant retired
rather than implement the far-reaching redefinition of the HCG
demanded by incoming Greek Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis
Chrysochoidis. The Ambassador was accompanied by the DCM, the RAS
chief, and an interpreter, while Bousios was accompanied by the
deputy commandant of the HCG, Vice Admiral Georgios Giannimaras.


3. (SBU) The Ambassador began the meeting by congratulating Bousios
on his appointment, noting the excellent cooperation between the
USG and the HCG, and wishing him well in his assignment. The
Ambassador said that he was interested in learning about the
changes that the HCG was undergoing and about Bousios's vision for
its role within the MCP. The Ambassador added that he was seeking
in particular to understand how the USG could support the
transformation.


4. (SBU) Bousios replied that he was implementing the decision to
make the HCG into a genuine coast guard. He explained that the
HCG's current name was better translated into English as Harbor
Corps (Limeniko soma),but the goal of the reorganization was to
transfer many of the HCG's duties to other ministries and make it
focus on four areas: law enforcement on the seas, maritime border
security, shipping security, and maritime environmental issues. A
draft law has been drawn up for this new agency, which is modeled
on the U.S. Coast Guard, both in the sense of the definition of its
responsibilities and in the sense of being a separate agency within
a larger structure (i.e., DHS). The new HCG will move to a
separate location, as it gives up its traditional functions within
the old Ministry of Merchant Marine and Aegean Island Affairs to
the newly refashioned Ministry of the Economy, Competitiveness, and
Merchant Marine.


5. (SBU) The reason for binning these agencies under the MCP,
Bousios continued, was to foster interagency cooperation and
"jointness." In mid-February the various MCP agencies will hold a
joint exercise to ascertain their level of cooperation and their
degree of interconnectivity and to determine what needs to be built
or corrected. Bousios said that he worked very well personally
with the heads of the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP) and
the Hellenic National Police (HNP). However, there was no magic
wand to create and foster cooperation at working levels, which will
take time and a new legislative basis to instill. The goal was to
recreate and institutionalize the interagency cooperation on
security that had been the norm for the Olympic Games in Athens in

2004.


6. (SBU) According to Bousios, the impetus behind the reform of the
HCG was the challenge of combating illegal immigration, which could
best be done by combining into one ministry all the civilian
agencies responsible for Greece's security. The difficulty of
guarding the maritime borders of Greece -- which has 18,000
kilometers of coast line and roughly 3,000 island and islets -- is
enormous. The HCG has to worry about economic crime, narcotics
smuggling, and human trafficking, as well as illegal immigration.
The fact that Greece has "bad neighbors" makes this problem worse.
Bousios noted that on February 8 his counterpart from Turkey would
visit, so that they could work on ways to improve border security
between Greece and Turkey. For now, however, Greece had to
confront the huge challenge to its stability and security posed by
illegal immigration. It also created a severe financial strain on
Greece, since once illegal immigrants arrive in Greece, mainly from
Turkey, they can activate all the protections of EU laws and
institutions, thereby making Greece responsible for them.



7. (SBU) In response to the Ambassador's comment about the need for
international cooperation and a pan-European approach to illegal
immigration, Bousios said that, in his personal opinion, the
challenge along Greece's eastern border cannot be met only by
police measures. He acknowledged that while Turkey certainly could
do much more to alleviate the problems facing Greece, Turkey too
has significant difficulties with illegal immigrants. For this
reason, discussions and initiatives need to take place at the
political level. Nevertheless, that is for Foreign Ministries to
work out. In the meantime, the MCP and the HCG are focusing on a
strategy of closing Greece's exit points, so that illegal
immigrants who do make it to Greece cannot move on to their
preferred destinations in Western Europe. Strict measures are
being applied in the ports of Patras, Corinth, and Igoumenitsa, as
well as at Venizelou Airport in Athens, which should send a strong
measure to both the illegal immigrants and the smuggling rings that
feed off of them that it is pointless to enter Greece. In
addition, the HCG is cooperating closely with FRONTEX, with which
it is has been having joint operations for over a year.
Nevertheless, much work remains to be done to integrate FRONTEX's
assets with Greece's security apparatus.


8. (SBU) The meeting ended with the Ambassador offering to support
the HCG's transformation and encouraging Bousios to feel free to
reach out to the Embassy with requests for training in line with
its changing mission.
Speckhard