GREECE: Ambassador Speckhard's Meeting with Hellenic Coast

UNCLAS ATHENS 000045 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL GR PGOV SMIG PBTS MCAP EWWT PHSA PTER SNAR 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