On Tuesday, 27 April, the European Parliament voted in favour of strengthening the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and its equipment reserve RescEU so as to give the EU the means to respond to any large-scale natural, health, nuclear, or other disaster more quickly and effectively, drawing lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12661/31).
The text—the result of interinstitutional negotiations concluded in February (see EUROPE 12654/16)—was approved by a large majority (641 votes in favour, 44 against, and 14 abstentions).
The Civil Protection Mechanism will receive €3.319 billion (€1.263 billion from the 2021–2027 EU budget and €2.056 billion from the Recovery Plan).
For the first time, the European Commission will be able to directly acquire, rent, lease, or otherwise contract capacities such as medical equipment and other supplies in duly justified emergencies.
The European Commission and Member States will set disaster resilience goals to support prevention and preparedness actions. A pan-European list of cross-border risks to be drawn up by the European Commission will have to be taken into account in national disaster risk management plans.
Rapporteur Níkos Androulákis (S&D, Greece) said he was “proud” of this outcome. “Just a year ago, the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism was one of the few examples of a European response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, this crisis proved that we were not ready and that we were not able to respond as we should have—both at the national level and the European level”, he stated.
The new legislation (an amendment of Decision 1313/2013/EU) will make it possible to avoid repeating in future the painful experience where Italy did not immediately receive the urgent assistance requested at the beginning of the pandemic when other Member States were themselves in difficulty due to lack of capacity. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)