European Disaster Reduction

Background

Depending on the type of an emergency the European Union reacts with different mechanisms. In case of a disaster in a country within or outside of the EU direct assistance is provided through the EU community procedure through the civil protection services of the states involved.

It is generally known that numerous events can lead to disasters, which can actually or potentially have disastrous implications on people, assets and the environment in general. Cases of disasters can be caused by natural disasters, industrial accidents, accidents due to technology or through terror attacks. In such crisis situations those departments and organisations engaged in civil protection have proved their competencies, which react extremely quickly to disasters, contribute to their management and minimising the implications and can help in saving people’s lives as well as minimising environmental pollution and economic and material damages.

The respective country concerned does indeed assume the main responsibility for coping with the direct implications of a disaster, however the Commission of the European Union has played an increasingly important role in civil protection since the beginning of the 90s. The provision of joint financial support represents however a useful contribution to the union for the activity and assignment of the civil protection organisations.

The member states agree that cooperation in civil protection has to be increased and created a basis for this with the first decision of the Council of 1987. In 1997, the first action programme of the Union for civil protection was decided.

In 2000, the Commission undertook a first step to developing an EU civil protection strategy by suggesting a joint procedure for coordinating civil protection as a supplement to the existing action programme of the Union for civil protection (2000-2004): This procedure facilitates support in disasters, which require urgent reaction by mobilising task forces, experts and other means.

The union has a legitimate role in this connection as it can help to operate beyond the borders of an individual state. In 2001 the Commission passed the joint procedure for promoting reinforced cooperation in civil protection assignments, a tool for facilitating and supporting the crisis management in accordance with the Treaty for the European Union (EU crisis management).

Legal basis

According to Article 3 Par. 1 letter u in the EU Treaty the activity of the Union covers measures in the field of civil protection.

The draft of the treaty for a European Constitution includes the demand to include an article concerning civil protection. This way the cooperation between the member states in preventing natural disasters or those caused by people and the protection against such disasters is to be supported (Article III-184).

Participation

The member states of the European Union can participate. Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway could participate based on the decision of the EEA committee of September 2002, however also acceding countries which sign an agreement in this respect with the Commission.

Organisation

A joint communication and information system (CECIS) was set-up to support the procedure. This system serves the exchange between the so-called location centres (the location centre of the EU MIC and in Germany e.g. the location centre of the Foreign Office, the location centres of the federal states or the joint reporting and location centre of the federal government and federal states, GMLZ) and is not accessible to the public.

If a member state or third country is affected by a disaster, it can request help through CECIS. This will be forwarded immediately to all countries involved which, on the other hand, send their answers to the centre.

In addition, the country concerned can use this network in order to gain access to specialists and other means of the public and private sector. Within just a few hours the country concerned knows where which help is available.

CECIS will regularly inform all countries concerned about the development of the situation. It can assign specialists and liaison officers on site so that these can facilitate the cooperation of the operation teams and assist in logistical, language or other problems.

The database contains actual information of the provided resources of the countries participating in the procedure in order to mobilise experts, task forces and other resources quickly in case of emergencies and specifically assign these accordingly.

Personnel and training

In order for the joint procedure to be applied efficiently, highly qualified specialists with relevant experience and relief teams, who are used to cooperating in the European framework have to be available.

So that the task forces also cooperate efficiently they must know each other as well as the procedures, which their colleagues from other members states apply, well. Training courses, exercises and other forms of cooperation contribute to ensuring that the cooperation is more efficient than was the case in the past.

Members of an ad-hoc disaster task force assigned on site are taken from specialised, national units of the participating countries.

Participants of a task force and experts are named by the respective member state.

A further training programme, was created in line with the requirements and is improved continuously. Target groups for this are the tasks forces and experts from the participating states.

Further, the training covers the execution of exercises with units and experts for strengthening the coordination between the participating states.

Experts can gain experience in other areas in an exchange system, become familiar with the working procedures in other participating states or study concepts and facilities of other emergency services.

Financing

The regulations and budget possibilities of the EU with regard to financial support in the case of disaster are regulated in the implementing regulations of the joint procedure.

According to these implementing regulations of the joint procedure the country which is affected by a disaster, insofar as no special agreement was reached between the respective countries, must bear the costs of the relief work itself.

With the means of the Solidarity fund people, regions and countries which are affected, are helped to return to a normal life as far as possible. Expenses can be refunded from the solidarity fund, which were paid for fundamental emergency measures such as combating the disaster, the restoration of the infrastructure and rescue services and serve to satisfy the most urgent needs. For this reason the costs for transporting rescue teams and equipment to the place of the disaster and their use are principally capable of reimbursement according to the directive for setting-up the solidarity fund.