Community co-operation in the field of civil protection
Why co-operate?
Community co-operation in the field of civil protection
aims to better protect people, their environment, property
and cultural heritage in the event of major natural or manmade
disasters occurring both inside and outside the EU.
The international role that European countries are playing
in the provision of civil protection assistance is increasing
one emergency after the other. Both past, but especially recent
disasters such as the 2004 South Asia tsunami, the 2005 US
hurricanes and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, bear witness
to this.
EU institutions and EU member states have over time increased
their reliance on co-operation for the provision of civil
protection assistance in order to be as effective as possible
on the site of a disaster. There is clear added-value in working
together. Such co-operation allows for the pooling of resources,
maximising the collective European effort on site.
The management of natural and manmade disasters is a clear
example of the value of action at Community level, where national
responsibility for dealing directly with disasters remains
unchallenged but is facilitated and assisted through sheer
collective effort.
Prevention, Preparedness & Response
The fundamental approach to an effective civil protection
operation relies on three key modes of action: Prevention,
Preparedness & Response.
The European Commission is responsible for supporting and
supplementing efforts at national, regional and local level
with regard to disaster prevention, the preparedness of those
responsible for civil protection and the intervention in the
event of disaster.
The legislative
framework for European civil protection enabled the Commission
to establish a framework for effective and rapid co-operation
betweennational
civil protection services when mutual assistance is needed.
The Commission provides for seminars,
expert exchanges, workshops and other training tools in
co-operation with the highly-developed civil protection training
institutions or similar establishments. Information sharing
and highlighting best practice ensures that civil protection
teams are both compatible with each other as well as complementary.
At the international
level, the Commission aims to enhance coherence especially
in the context of co-operation with candidate countries in
view of enlargement and with partners in the Mediterranean
region.
In a more general context, the Commission is also working
on prevention matters in the development of its environmental
policy for
climate change.
Information
Information is key to successful co-operation in civil protection
matters. The players at stake are not only civil protection
authorities but the public at large, which at any given moment
could fall victim to a disaster. Contributing to raising
awareness in view of increasing the level of self-protection
of European citizens is therefore part of the whole co-operation
strategy adopted by the EU and Member States.
However proper distribution of information during
emergencies is also a necessity. Without information-sharing
the whole co-operation structure would simply collapse. It
is in this light that the Commission collects and disseminates
validated emergency information and that Member States undertake
to pool information on national civil protection capabilities,
military and medical resources.
Intervention
Community co-operation also calls for the rapid mobilisation
of intervention teams, experts and other resources on request
in the event of major emergencies in order to alleviate the
effects of a disasters during the first days. The Commission
is entrusted to facilitate this as well to offer technical
support, including satellite images if these are required.
Post-disaster analysis and recovery
After the emergency relief operation is over, work starts
on further information-sharing. In the case of major operations,
the Commission organises lessons-learnt sessions which
greatly contribute to identifying best-practice in preparation
for other emergencies. In the recovery phase, the Commission
also grants financial assistance to the affected state via
the Solidarity Fund.
Community tools for civil protection
Over the years, the EU has developed two major tools through
which all the above-mentioned policy objectives in the field
of civil protection may be achieved.
The Community Action Programme
supports major projects, workshops and training courses in
the field of prevention, preparedness and response to natural
disasters both at land and at sea.
The Community Mechanism for Civil
Protection involves the participation of 30 European states
which pool their civil protection resources that can be made
available to disaster-stricken countries.
There are also tools that have been specifically designed
to deal with major industrial
chemical accidents and combating
marine pollution.
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