On Wednesday 7 October, Member States’ Ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) approved the negotiating mandate for the financing of a reinforced Civil Protection Mechanism under the framework of the 2021-2027 EU budget.
The Council of the EU has therefore formally adopted its partial negotiating position (in relation to budgetary aspects only) over the Commission's proposal of 2 June aimed at providing the EU with the means for a more efficient, effective and flexible collective response to large-scale disasters (see EUROPE 12574/16).
The mandate foresees an envelope of €1.263 billion, in line with European Council guidelines, and up to €2.056 billion to implement civil protection-related measures needed to address the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis through the EU recovery instrument.
This represents an increase of around 300% of the funds (compared to the 2014-2020 budget), reflecting the recent extension of the capacity of the RescEU equipment reserve, the strengthening of the European civil protection pool, and improvements in disaster prevention and preparedness.
This mandate also provides greater flexibility to allocate funds where they are needed by no longer defining in advance the percentage of funds that are to be allocated respectively to prevention, preparedness and response (see EUROPE 12575/26). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)