Late on Monday 8 February, the European Parliament and the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU reached a political agreement to bolster the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism and RescEU equipment stockpile.
This reform should enable the EU to respond more quickly and effectively to any major disaster, based on lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12560/9).
“The agreement reached today ensures that no call for help from an EU country to the Union will be left unanswered”, said European Parliament rapporteur Nikos Androulakis (S&D, Greece). He noted that, a year ago, Italy’s request for support went unanswered because the other Member States were also struggling to cope.
So that assistance can be deployed more rapidly, the agreement includes provision, under specific conditions, for the European Commission to acquire the resources it needs directly.
The Civil Protection Mechanism will receive €3.319 billion (€1.263 billion from the EU budget for 2021-2027 and €2.056 billion from the recovery plan), i.e. about five times more than in the period 2014-2020.
The European Parliament has ensured that sufficient financial resources are allocated to the mechanism’s three pillars (prevention, preparedness and response) by designating the amount to be spent on prevention.
To improve the capacity of the EU and Member States to withstand the effects of major cross-border disasters, the Commission and Member States will identify disaster resilience targets to support prevention and preparedness actions.
Whenever EU resources are used for national purposes, Member States will be required to indicate that these resources come from the EU.
On Twitter, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Commission, said: “For the first time, the EU will be able to directly procure what is needed to address a crisis, including medical equipment”.
Janez Lenarčič, the Commissioner for Crisis Management, stated: “This legislation will be decisive for a more resilient Europe with more capacity to respond to disasters”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)