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Last week the EC issued a statement about reinforcing the EU's Disaster Response capacity. A screening exercise of all its existing resources has been launched and an action plan promised before the end of 2008.
The President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso stated: "When helping Tsunami victims in South Asia, evacuating EU citizens from war-torn Lebanon or fighting floods and forest fires in Europe – we can only protect our citizens and help others if we act together in solidarity. When responding to such disasters, Europe, as in so many other ways, is strongest when we combine our capacities and profit from our diversity and different expertise.”
Major natural disasters such as the 2004 Tsunami or forest fires and floods in Europe need an effective EU disaster response capacity. Disasters are often of a cross-border nature and require multilateral and coordinated responses, whilst boundaries between internal and external threats are increasingly blurred. For example, the Indian Ocean Tsunami affected European tourists as well as the local populations, floods and fires affect both EU Member States and neighbouring countries, and epidemics can spread from one continent to another.
The following proposals were made:
- To transform the Community's Civil protection mechanism into a genuine operational centre and beef it up with reserve resources, i.e. stand by modules or complementary European resources.
- To reinforce humanitarian aid by filling existing delivery gaps, strengthening the global response capacity (in particular UN and Red Cross movement) and improving coordination with the various humanitarian organisations.
- To set up a European-wide Disaster Response Training Network building on the experience of the Member States in civil protection training.
- To improve disaster preparedness measures both within the EU and in third countries, early warning systems (e.g. for Tsunamis in the Mediterranean) and use of the single European Emergency System.
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