The EU is further increasing its fire-fighting reserve airborne equipment to prepare for the 2023 forest fire season and, at the same time, is continuing its preparations for chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) threats, announced the European Commission and the Swedish Presidency of the Council on Tuesday 30 May at a ceremony in Brussels at the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) to mark the 10th anniversary of this pivotal body of the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).
The ERCC coordinates the EU’s response to natural or man-made disasters which, due to their scale or the fact that they occur simultaneously in several regions or countries, exceed the capacity of the affected countries to cope, whether inside or outside the EU, provided they submit a request for assistance to the Commission.
“The ERCC is the engine room of European solidarity”, with Bosnia, Albania and Ukraine as new members. It has been particularly called upon in recent years “to deal with challenges such as the climate crisis, with events of increasing scale and intensity”, stressed Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management, citing in particular the recent floods in Italy (see EUROPE 13188/7), the particularly devastating forest fires of 2022 and the war in Ukraine.
A fleet of 28 aircraft. He announced that the EU fleet will increase from 13 to 28 aircraft, including 10 Canadairs, 14 light amphibious aircraft and 4 helicopters, which will be located in 10 Member States (France, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Czech Republic and Sweden) to make good the promise made by Ursula von der Leyen in September 2022 to double the safety net of air assets in the RescEU equipment pool.
On Tuesday, the representatives of the 10 countries - ministers, civil protection directors or ambassadors to the EU - received from the Commissioner the decision to award the RescEU aircraft they will be hosting.
A new team of more than 400 firefighters and experts from the Member States will also be pre-positioned in France, Greece and Portugal for deployment in the event of an emergency.
Increasing resilience and mobilising society. On Tuesday morning, the Commission and the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU organised an informal coordination meeting of the relevant ministers from the Member States and the countries participating in the UCPM, with a view to increasing resilience to CBRN incidents (see EUROPE 12927/4).
For Janez Lenarčič, it is now a matter of “implementing the five resilience objectives to be prepared for tomorrow’s disasters” - objectives set out in February by the Commission in its communication ‘Acting together to deal with future emergencies’ and in its recommendation to the Member States (see EUROPE 13117/5).
Minister for Civil Defence of Sweden Carl-Oskar Bohlin, pointed out that during its 6 months at the helm of the Council of the EU, the Swedish Presidency has worked in close cooperation with ECHO (the Commission’s civil protection services) to “raise European awareness and increase civil society’s involvement in civil protection”.
He expressed his hope that, under the Swedish Presidency, the new amendment to be made to the European decision on the UCPM could be adopted to allow the RescEU permanent reserve, initially planned for 2026, to become operational on a transitional basis (see EUROPE 13030/11).
To provide political guidance, the EU Council is preparing conclusions to implement the resilience objectives, promote greater involvement of the private sector and continue the work of preparing for CBRN threats, said Mr Bohlin.
The Swedish minister added that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could “sadly increase the number of incidents”: “We need to prepare for such scenarios, in cooperation with the Member States, ECHO and the ERCC”. In his view, the informal ministerial meeting provided an opportunity to exchange experiences and provide impetus for increased preparedness efforts. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)