Raad stemt in met EU-mechanisme voor civiele bescherming (en)

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 16 December 2013 (OR. en) PRESSE 568

Council adopts new Union Civil Protection Mechanism

The Council adopted today a decision on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism (PE-CON)

The new legal instrument, based for the first time on Article 196 TFEU relating to civil protection, will improve the effectiveness of systems preventing, preparing for and responding to natural and man-made disasters of all kinds within and outside the EU. The Union Mechanism is a visible expression of European solidarity, supporting, complementing and facilitating the coordination of member states' actions in the field of civil protection. It will bring better predictability and quality of assistance, and increased cost-efficiency by means of scale and complementarity. The decision guarantees funding for the Union Civil Protection Mechanism for the next seven years

What's new?

The Union Civil Protection Mechanism covers inter alia:

-            strong focus on disaster prevention, with provisions relating to risk assessment and risk management planning;

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  increased predictability of assistance by setting up the European Emergency Response Capacity (EERC) in the form of a voluntary pool of pre-committed response assets from member states;

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  identification and addressing of potentially significant response capacity gaps in the EERC;

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  reinforcement and transformation of the Monitoring and Information Centre into an Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) ensuring 24/7 operational capacity and serving the member states and the European Commission in facilitating the coordination of civil protection assistance interventions;

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  more cost-effective and better coordinated transportation of assistance to the

affected countries

The decision will enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. It will apply from 1 January 2014

Background

This decision replaces the current legislation in this field

The Civil Protection Mechanism was set up in 2001. It relies on resources managed at national and regional level by the authorities of the 32 participating states (28 EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and FYROM)

In recent years the number and severity of natural and man-made disasters have increased considerably, which has made more pressing the need to pursue a further integrated and updated approach to disaster management, and led to the revision of the EU civil protection legislation

The initial proposal was tabled by the Commission in December 2011 ().

Council Decision on a Civil Protection Financial Instrument of 5 March 2007 (OJ L 71, 10.3.2007), due to expire by the end of this year, and Council Decision establishing a Community Civil Protection Mechanism (recast) of 8 November 2007 (OJ L 314, 1.12.2007)