2.2 Administration and governance of youth volunteering
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Governance
The General Secretariat for Civil Protection (GSCP), which belongs to the Greek Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, is the national body for keeping the ‘Civil Protection Volunteering Register’: Civil Protection Voluntary Organisations, their members, equipment and planning documentation. The Civil Protection Voluntary Organisations collaborate with the Civil Protection authorities and their mission is to help the governmental state bodies in the protection of life, health and property of citizens. Moreover, they provide help for the environment and cultural heritage from natural, technological or man-made disasters and threats, which cause emergencies during peacetime. According to the archives on the General Secretariat for Civil Protection (GSCP) website, no official document mentioning any cooperation established with other countries' volunteer systems in order to exchange information and identify best practises was found. Also, according to law 4873/2021, the volunteer employment provider is obliged to announce volunteers in the special application of the information system of employee registration ERGANI of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which is accessible through the Single Digital Portal of Public Administration (gov.gr, EPSP), with the exception of exceptional cases of volunteer work.
Moreover, on April 14, 2020, Joint Ministerial Decision No. 3063 ("JIA") was published (Government Gazette B' 1382), with the provisions of which the more systematic and stricter control of the operation of NGOs, which are active in the field in question, is introduced, as well as the natural persons who collaborate with them, while for the first time a Register of members, employees, partners, and volunteers of the relevant NGOs is being created, under the control and supervision of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum, in order to certify all NGOs, as well as all the human resources involved in their daily operation.
All Greek and international voluntary organizations, civil society organizations, and "Non-Governmental Organisations- M.K.O.", which are active in Greece in matters of international protection, immigration, and social integration are registered in this electronic community. The registration of the agencies is a necessary condition in order to participate in the implementation of international protection, immigration and social integration actions within the Greek Territory, and in particular in the provision of legal, psychosocial, and medical services.
The purpose of maintaining the above Register is the necessity of recording, for reasons of public interest, all its entities in order to ensure transparency in the way they operate and, through this, optimise the services provided by them, as well as to make possible the safeguarding of the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants under international protection who are in the Greek territory. The above Register will be kept for as long as the said entities are active in the Greek territory.
Organisations wishing to register in the "Register of Greek and Foreign Non-Governmental Organisations (N.G.O)" must submit an electronic application for registration through the relevant online application of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum, by compulsorily filling in all fields of the application and submitting the data and supporting documents electronically. All foreign documents are required to be certified and translated in accordance with current Greek legislation.
Cross-sectoral cooperation
Each public organisation in Greece, which implements a framework of volunteering activities, follows a unique plan and an associated strategy of its own, as there is no central governmental coordination of the volunteering activities implemented by other public organisations On this matter, so far there is no official plan for cross-sectoral cooperation.