In defense and health the largest increases in spending

By Tasos Dasopoulos

Defense and health are the two sectors with the largest increases in spending in the three years 2020-2022, based on the data of the 2022 Budget. period, will have an increase of 33.7%.

In the field of armaments programs, due to the difficult 2020 of the geopolitical threats posed by neighboring Turkey, but also the gap of the 10-year Memorandum in the replacement of the country’s defense equipment due to the economic crisis, the changes were very fast. The budget of the Ministry of National Defense, from 3.38 billion euros in 2020, after the emphasis on strengthening the deterrent power of the country, in 2021 increased by 62.5%, to 5.5 billion euros. According to the final text of the Budget, in 2022 it will increase by another 880 million euros, that is, in addition, reaching 6.41 billion euros. Overall from 2020 to 2020 defense money increased by 89.6%. This money does not include the last orders for aircraft and warships, as they will start to be paid upon delivery. They are only required to supplement the existing equipment, ground, air and sea, with ammunition and spare parts, in order to strengthen the combat readiness of the armed forces.

There has apparently been a coronavirus pandemic in health spending as a “catalyst” for spending increases. In 2020, funds of 3.86 billion were budgeted for health. Finally, with the additional expenditures for COVID, the budget of the Ministry of Health increased to 4.83 billion euros. In 2021, € 4.26 billion had been budgeted (including additional expenditure on COVID) and the budget estimate is that (including COVID expenditure) it will reach € 5.22 billion, an increase compared to 2020 by 7.6%. In 2022, together with the 6,000 recruitments that will be made in the health sector, the total expenditures will reach 6.48 billion euros, recording an increase of 24.1% compared to 2021 and 33.6% compared to 2020. It is worth noting that the health sector will be the most favored by recruitment, since of the 20,641 scheduled to take place this year, 29% will be in the critical health sector. In addition, in 2022, the special budget program of 1.5 billion of the Recovery Fund will begin to be implemented, which provides, among other things, for the modernization of the country’s hospital units.

Hirings

Another area favored by the pandemic was recruitment. The pandemic froze the process in 2020, with the result that now a total of 46,641 recruitments are planned for 2021-2022, of which 26,000 this year until the end of 2021 and another 20,641 recruitments for 2022. The additional recruitments, which, however, go hand in hand with As a rule, one recruitment for each departure that Greece is obliged to follow, resulted from the 4,712 recruitments that were not made in 2020, but also from the faster than expected departure of staff due to the pandemic.

From the 20,641 recruitments that have been planned for the next year, including the recruitment approvals based on the 2022 Planning, as well as the recruitments from previous years, the distribution of the new recruitments per ministry was made. Given again that the largest percentage of departures was made – for obvious reasons – in the health sector, there will be emphasis on filling vacancies.

Thus, it was decided that almost one in three new recruitments (29%), corresponding to about 6,000 people, will be nursing staff, in order to adequately staff the structures of the ministry with medical, nursing and other staff. The recruitment program is focused on the emphasis that is now given to defense. In this direction, 2,400 more admissions are planned in the productive schools of the armed forces and security forces, along with the recruitment of 1,600 five-year service hoplites, 1,000 police officers, 1,009 employees in the Ministry of Finance, 1,500 in the Ministry of Education, 2,400 in central administration. 800 at the Ministries of Environment and Asylum and Immigration Policy and 400 at the Ministry of Defense.