The European Parliament wants to strengthen the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and its RescEU equipment reserve to give the EU the means to respond more quickly and effectively to any large-scale natural, health, nuclear or other disaster, drawing lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12552/16, 12520/16).
The report by Nikos Androulakis (S&D, Greece), as adopted by the Environment Committee on the Commission’s proposal (amendment of Decision 1313/2013/EU), was barely amended in plenary on Monday 14 September.
Parliament wants to complete the pan-European resilience targets by linking them to national plans, increase funding to 100% for all means, including in the RescEU reserve, and in particular for Canadair. He also wants the Commission to be able to purchase the equipment itself. Parliament also supports the tripling of the budget of the civil protection mechanism for 2021-2027 (€3.1 billion by adding €2 billion from the recovery fund).
“The Civil Protection Mechanism is an expression of European solidarity. We want a civil protection mechanism that can deal directly and effectively with anything that threatens us dramatically”, summarised Mr Androulakis during the debate.
One of the amendments voted on emphasises the high quality of the equipment and the fact that equipment purchased or leased by the Commission remains under its absolute control, even when it is distributed to the Member States.
Parliament also removed the possibility that RescEU’s capacity that were bought, leased or taken on lease by the Commission could be placed in non-Member States.
“It is necessary that there should be no intervention by foreign powers”, stressed Budget Committee MEP Niclas Herbst (EPP, Germany).
The final vote on the resolution itself is scheduled for Wednesday. This resolution will be a mandate to start negotiations with the EU Council, Parliament hopes. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)