EURO-MED pilot project in the field of Civil Protection

This «Pilot Project for the creation of a EURO-MED system of prevention, mitigation and management of natural and man-made disasters» is jointly led by Italy and Egypt and is co-financed by the European Union (EUROMED programme) and the Italian Government (aproximate budget ± 2,5 M€ for two years - 1999/2000). The Civil Protection Unit participates actively in this project.

The objectives of the pilot project are:

  • to supplement bilateral and multilateral initiatives of the Member States,
  • to establish a set of concrete and operational actions,

In the view of the project leaders, this project constitutes a first building block for the establishment of a EURO-MED system of civil protection.

The project is managed by a Steering Committe composed by representatives of the 15 Member States of the Union, of the 12 Mediterranean partners (Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordania, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) as well as the European Commission. The Secretariat of the EURO-MED Pilot Project is assured by Italy (Contact :  EURO-MED Pilot Project on Civil Protection, c/o Ministero degli Affari Esteri, via della Farnesine 21-23, I-00194 Roma, tel, +39-06-32.35.877, +39-06-36.91.54.30, fax. +39-06-33.38.633).

The following activities are foreseen:

Training courses are planned in the areas of Earthquakes (Turkey and Portugal), Flash floods (Egypt and Greece), Forest fires (France and Morocco). Aimed to avoid duplication with the themes of other meetings, and to stick to the Pilot Project's targets, special emphasis is put on (i) the circulation of information on methods, techniques and organisational skills, and (ii) the identification of individual needs or specific expertises.

Exchange of experts : The objective is to set up a system for the exchange of experts in three priority themes (earthquakes, flash floods and forest fires). In order to allow swift taking-off of the exchange of experts, Euro-Med Partners were requested to transmit a first list of a few officials to visit EU Countries, and their preferred field of application.

Nineteen applications were fully processed: further twelve pending because of either incomplete file information, or national decision to be taken on names.  As a function of (i) the area and (ii) Country of interest, they are being transmitted to individual Civil Protections for acceptance and organisation of the visits.   Applicants are distributed as evenly as possible over EU Civil Protections having already given their agreement for hosting experts.  The duration of Euro-Med experts visits is fixed in ten days plus travel.  A visit report is requested to both hosing bodies and visiting experts.

Networking of Civil Protection Schools. The first meeting was held in Madrid, Spain (7-9 October 1999). It dealt with a comparative and critical analysis of past and present education in Civil Protection, risk management and rescue services, with special emphasis on Courses at professional level (firemen, civil protection officials, etc.), Higher Education (College, University, post-Doctorate) and Tele-education (Broadcasted and Interactive Information). It also proceeded to a comparative and critical analysis of educational products (multimedia, e.g.) with special emphasis on methods and techniques for awareness-raising, Public information related to specific emergency plans, Show comparison and test of national products (booklets; books, CDs, PC demos, other).

In order to avoid to duplication both in content and in style, other initiatives in the field of natural or man-made disasters (as, among others, those by DG Environment, DG Research, UN-IDNDR, Council of Europe), the meetings of Civil Protection Schools are integrated in one framework showing the label "into the 21st Century: The Civil Protection Educational and Training Challenge".

The first meeting (Madrid 7-9 October 1999) bear the sub-title "Part 1 - Learn form the past" while the second (t.b.d., in the year 2000) will bear the sub-title "Part 2 - Partnership for the future".

Technical Assistance missions :

  • Oil fires (Egypt)
  • Ground deformation (Algeria)
  • Water table upraise (Algeria)
  • Risk Assessment procedures (Morocco)
  • Chemical risks assessment (Tunisia)
  • Other technical assistance missions requested (Malta, Cyprus).

According to the decisions of the first Steering Committee, the Project Management has asked the Partners requesting technical assistance to draft the Terms of reference (ToR), including: (a) expected background information, (b) expected results, (c) preferred dates for the field mission, as well as (d) eventual preferences on the experts' profiles.