Responding to emergency

The growth of natural and man-made disasters, in frequency and intensity, have highlighted the need to develop a new action plan at European level. In December 2011 the Commission adopted a new legislative proposal, which aims to reinforce the EU’s disaster management. The proposal was recently illustrated and discussed by Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner responsible for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response during a meeting with the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Parliament. National plans, EU cooperation. The revised legislative proposal suggests creating a European Emergency Response Capacity, moving from the current ad hoc arrangement to a predictable and reliable system that allows for good planning. "We must adopt a bottom-up approach – Kristalina Georgieva declared. This involves "stepping up the involvement of Member States, which cannot solely depend on EU initiative". Thus Member States are required to communicate their risk management plans by end 2016. "A more efficient response to disasters can be obtained with increased information and reinforced prevention measures". At present, the EU can draw upon a wide range of instruments when responding to major disasters. These include the use of Member States’ civil protection assets through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. "But often an in-depth picture of available resources is lacking, which prevents optimal response– the Commissioner explained -. Better planning, coordination and information sharing between Member States is therefore needed".Floods, earthquakes, clouds of ash… In 2010 alone, Europe and its immediate neighbours experienced a series of particularly severe disasters. "These ranged from flash floods and severe storms in Western Europe, large-scale floods in Central Europe, volcanic ash clouds after the eruption in Iceland, to unprecedented forest fires in Russia, and the explosion in the Cyprus naval base. Haiti and Pakistan also suffered from major natural disasters", underlined Kristalina Georgieva. Further serious emergencies at regional level took place in 2011. "Not always have we been able to provide efficient response to such dramatic events, that caused the loss of many human lives", the Commissioner said recalling the experience in Haiti: after the earthquake that devastated its capital, Port-au-Prince, French and German relief teams that belonged to the same humanitarian mission, couldn’t communicate because they used different walkie-talkies systems. "Standardizing procedures is crucial, and to this regard 132 assistance procedures have already been adopted by all Member States".European Emergency Response Capacity. Revised legislative proposal innovations include the establishment of an emergency response capacity in the form of a voluntary pool of experts and specialized equipment available for immediate deployment as part of a collective European intervention; the simplification and strengthening of transport arrangements for a faster immediate deployment of EU assistance; the setting up of the Emergency Response Centre (ERC), providing for an improved service with better planning and better coordination when a crisis hits. The European Emergency Response Centre will be a 24/7 response centre, which will serve as a platform for a more efficient EU response by collecting information on disasters, monitoring hazards, in order to be prepared in case of an emergency situation. After the case of the Concordia cruise ship. The Commissioner underlined that preparedness to face natural and man-made disasters is paramount, as shown in the recent case of the Concordia shipwreck. "Only a few weeks ago we carried out the simulation of a ferry-boat in the Baltic Sea, so as to instruct the involved nations on the related action plan to be implemented before such disasters". "Preventing the impossible or if not, fighting against the impossible": that’s the message of hope launched by the president of the Parliamentary Committee Mathias Groote, who reiterated the commitment of the European Parliament in the creation of a new information and coordination plan at national level, in order to raise awareness across Member States on the importance of prevention also in the light of ongoing climate changes.