Emergency services and civil protection teams from the cross-border region covering Luxembourg, France, Germany and Belgium have come together to share resources and expertise. The goal of the INTER’RED project is to provide the local population with streamlined, coordinated emergency services that do not stop at one country’s border.
- 04 February 2020
Risks do not stop at borders in the Greater Region today and it is necessary for citizens that rescue services can cooperate to provide a better service and a better quality of rescue.
INTER’RED brings key emergency organisations together to form a ‘civil security force’ capable of providing services which best meet the needs of the Grande Région. The project aims at helping rescue services optimise their resources by making them available to their counterparts across national borders.The project is addressing a number of planning and practical issues that can hinder cross-border cooperation when dealing with an emergency such a large-scale fire or flood. For example fire-brigades’ hoses and pipes are not compatible, which can make joint interventions difficult to execute. Meanwhile, mobile networks along the border vary from country to country, which can hamper communications.
The project has developed staff training packages and aims to connect the region’s emergency call centres. Beyond marshalling existing resources, the project is looking to bring innovation to emergency assessment and response through the use of drones, robots and computer simulations.
Sharing resources
Although the project runs until the end of 2021, a number of key activities have already been executed. Emergency services have signed cross-border agreements to share transport resources. Efforts are being made address challenges that can hamper the movement of victims across borders, such as traffic management, administrative issues and rules governing the reimbursement of care costs.
The project partners are helping to negotiate agreements on access to some cross-border healthcare resources that are not available in all countries. For example, the region only has one decompression chamber, at the Emile Mayerish hospital centre in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Delivering lasting impact
INTER’RED is ensuring that cross-border cooperation lasts well beyond the project’s lifetime. The project has developed a collaborative wiki for training, and is drafting a risk identification plan for the Grande Région. In addition, signing partnership and operational coverage agreements should give project outputs a legal framework. Moreover, bi-national partnerships at local level will allow for the organisation of joint relief operations.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “INTER’RED: For cooperation of the Greater Region’s emergency services” is EUR 7 203 783, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 3 851 348 through the “Interreg V-A - France-Belgium-Germany-Luxembourg” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Better public administration”.