Brussels, 29/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - ML14 (Multilayer 2014) is the name of the crisis management exercise that will be launched by the EU on Tuesday 30 September to test - until 23 October - the effectiveness of the EU's crisis management and response in a fictitious complex crisis situation requiring both a military operation and a civilian mission as part of the common security and defence policy (CSDP). Organised by the European External Action Service (EEAS) and conducted by the EU member states, ML14 will enable the overall crisis management approach to be tested in a changing environment and will also enable the new procedures of emergency planning to be tested.
The exercise will be based on a fictitious scenario of a worsening security and humanitarian situation in an imaginary region in which the state of Sarunia is threatened by events in bordering countries Ranua and Celego, which are spilling over its borders. Sarunia aks for the EU's military intervention to maintain a secure environment, and a civilian mission to help it manage its borders and support its judicial reform. The deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the refugee camps triggers civilian action with the support of the United Nations and the international Red Cross. A pirate attack on an oil tanker has caused a catastrophe in the port of 'Batela', and a cyber-attack targeting the EU's local communications system has resulted in the EU's civil protection mechanism being activated.
This exercise is part of a long series (currently eight), but is only the second to mobilise all levels of intervention - from the geo-political level to the operational level - of the EU's crisis management structures. The exercise will be supervised by Agostino Miozzo, the EEAS director for crisis response and operational coordination. The EU's political and security committee will exercise the political control and strategic direction of the CSDP military operation and the CSDP civilian mission. ML12, the first exercise of the sort, took place in 2012. (AN)