{"id":19843,"date":"2025-09-04T16:28:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/project\/combating-illicit-trafficking-and-protecting-intellectual-property\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T15:55:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:55:13","slug":"tackling-illicit-trade-and-protecting-intellectual-property","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/project\/tackling-illicit-trade-and-protecting-intellectual-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling illicit trade and protecting intellectual property (Strengthening of DIMEA)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Key Facts<\/strong><br \/>\nProject Budget: \u20ac5,723,209.50 (including VAT)<br \/>\nDuration: Until 30.06.2025<br \/>\nFunding: 100% financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To increase efficiency in combating illicit trade, in line with current challenges, the needs and expectations of citizens and businesses, while enhancing their resilience and digital transition.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Impact<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Interagency Market Control Unit (DIMEA) operates as a unified and robust enforcement mechanism, focusing on combating illicit trade in goods and services. Its scope includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Protecting the internal market.<\/li>\n<li>Enhancing competitiveness and entrepreneurship.<\/li>\n<li>Safeguarding consumers from dangerous illegal goods and services circulating within the country.<\/li>\n<li>Strengthening national security by disrupting illegal trading networks.<\/li>\n<li>Protecting intellectual property rights.<\/li>\n<li>Enhancing the value of commercial brands.<\/li>\n<li>Increasing business growth and public revenue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The initiative Combating Illicit Trade and Protecting Intellectual Property falls under Pillar 4.2 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan &#8220;Greece 2.0&#8221;, which focuses on modernizing public administration. It also includes measures for skills development and the fight against corruption.<\/p>\n<p>To effectively implement this reform initiative, DIMEA must:<br \/>\ni) be equipped with modern technological tools;<br \/>\nii) be staffed with sufficient, specialized personnel and appropriate training material to ensure impactful and measurable results;<br \/>\niii) establish awareness and information dissemination programs for both businesses and consumers, highlighting the importance of intellectual property rights protection; and<br \/>\niv) intensify inspections by installing checkpoints in various parts of the country to serve as permanent control stations for vehicles entering Greece from neighboring countries.<\/p>\n<p>As such, the project focuses on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Developing an integrated, interoperable <strong>Information System (IS)<\/strong> for managing market inspections nationwide, targeting the circulation and trade of goods and services in both domestic and international markets, with checkpoints at border entry points and toll stations.<\/li>\n<li>Procuring high-tech <strong>portable equipment<\/strong> for on-site inspections, enabling immediate issuance of fines and integration with the IS database.<\/li>\n<li>Establishing a modern, secure <strong>operations center<\/strong> for market surveillance data collection and processing by upgrading regional infrastructure.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Educating and informing citizens<\/strong> on intellectual property rights protection.<\/li>\n<li>Procuring <strong>inspection vehicles<\/strong>, <strong>prefabricated control units (ISOBOX)<\/strong> at strategic checkpoints across the country, and <strong>scanners<\/strong> for the inspection of commercial cargo.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Growthfund\u2019s Project Preparation Facility (PPF) has undertaken the project&#8217;s preparation and coordination through the Horizontal Technical Assistance it provides to the Ministry of Development, as well as the tendering process and contract execution monitoring.<\/p>\n<p>The project has a total budget of \u20ac5,723,209.50 (including VAT).<br \/>\nIt is implemented under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan \u201cGreece 2.0\u201d with funding from the European Union \u2013 NextGenerationEU.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Progress<\/strong><br \/>\nThe project consists of nine (9) contracts with a total value of \u20ac5,723,209.50 (including VAT), of which seven (7) contracts have already been signed, amounting to \u20ac4,697,896.09 (including VAT).<\/p>\n<p>The following have been completed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The development of the <strong>Information System<\/strong> for managing market inspections to combat illicit trade.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>procurement of twelve (12) plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles<\/strong> and <strong>six (6) charging stations<\/strong> for DIMEA.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>purchase and installation of ten (10) prefabricated control units (ISOBOX).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pending completion:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The establishment of a <strong>modern, high-security operations center<\/strong> for market surveillance data collection and processing within DIMEA.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>implementation of public awareness and education programs<\/strong> on intellectual property rights protection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Contracts for the final two tenders\u2014relating to procurement needs for the operations center\u2014are expected to be signed imminently.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- MetaSlider 11574 not found -->\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11068 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/hradf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/greece-20en-300x36.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"36\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Facts Project Budget: \u20ac5,723,209.50 (including VAT) Duration: Until 30.06.2025 Funding: 100% financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) &nbsp; Purpose To increase efficiency in combating illicit trade, in line with current challenges, the needs and expectations of citizens and businesses, while enhancing their resilience and digital transition. &nbsp; Impact The Interagency Market Control [&hellip;]&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16339,"template":"","class_list":["post-19843","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project-category-procurement-services","project-status-in-progress"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/19843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/19843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34443,"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/19843\/revisions\/34443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ppf.growthfund.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}