‘Acting together to deal with future emergencies’ is the title of the communication presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 8 February to urge the EU and its Member States to better prevent, prepare for and respond, individually and collectively, to large-scale natural or man-made disasters with cross-border implications for several countries.
This Communication is accompanied by ‘resilience goals’ in the context of civil protection, set out in the form of a Recommendation to Member States (see EUROPE 13096/4).
Civil protection or disaster management is primarily a Member State competence. The European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, recalled this when presenting the initiative to the press. “The Commission is playing a supportive role in a proactive way”, he said, adding that the five goals “are the result of working with the Member States”.
From floods and fires to earthquakes and biological or nuclear threats, “by engaging in this European disaster resilience programme, the EU and its Member States will be better placed to respond, prevent and prepare for the consequences of major disasters. This will save more lives and better protect citizens, livelihoods and the environment in the EU”, the Commissioner emphasised.
The five goals identified, with specific objectives and targets respectively, are:
1. Anticipate - Improving risk assessment, anticipation and disaster risk management planning. The aim will be to identify vulnerabilities in critical sectors and to anticipate dangers and threats.
2. Prepare - Increasing risk awareness and preparedness of the population in each Member State. By 2030, 90% of the EU population should be aware of the disaster risks in their region. To this end, the Commission intends to launch a flagship initiative called preparEU, a pan-European disaster resilience awareness programme for European citizens.
3. Alert - Enhancing early warning to ensure that warning messages at national, regional and local levels reach the right people in a timely manner. The target for 2030 is to increase the effectiveness and interoperability of early warning systems in the EU.
4. Respond - Enhancing the Union Civil Protection Mechanism response capacity (UCPM) to avoid further deterioration of the situation when a country’s disaster response capacity is exceeded. The ambition here is to achieve, by 2024, the strengthening of the UCPM in the areas of response to forest fires, floods, search and rescue needs, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) events and health emergencies. In addition, by 2024, capacity will be added in areas such as temporary shelter, emergency energy supply and transport.
5. Secure - Ensuring a robust civil protection system. Civil protection systems must remain operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, during and after disasters. The Commission believes that updating business continuity plans and procedures and ensuring coordination and information sharing between sectors, including with critical infrastructure providers, will help civil protection systems to function at all times. The aim is to ensure, by 2027, the continuity of the activities of the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) and civil protection in the Member States, including under severe conditions such as disasters with cascading cross-sectoral and cross-border impacts, simultaneous and recurrent disasters, protracted emergencies and newly emerging disaster risks.
See the recommendation to Member States: https://aeur.eu/f/59b
See the Commission’s communication: https://aeur.eu/f/59v (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)