Mechanisme voor Civiele Bescherming van de Unie treedt in werking (en)
Almost 18 months after the adoption by the Committee of the Regions of its opinion on the Union's Civil Protection Mechanism, the decision of the Parliament and the Council is adopted and the Mechanism finally enters into force. In the words of Kristina Gieorgieva, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, this new legislation "is about protecting lives, homes and livelihoods in the face of more frequent and devastating disasters".
Natural disasters don't stop at the European doorstep. In the last decade, natural hazards and technological accidents caused nearly 100 000 fatalities and affected more than 11 million people on the continent.
To better protect people, the environment, the property and the cultural heritage, EU Member States agreed in December to draft and submit their risk assessment plans - based of commonly agreed guidelines - to the Commission by the end of 2015, share their best practice examples and pre-commit their assets and experts to the voluntary European pool, thus forming European Emergency Response Capacity (EERC).
The new legislation clearly reflects the CoR position on the role of local and regional authorities in the disaster prevention and protection, stating that they are 'of great importance in disaster management (…) and thus need to be appropriately involved in the activities carried out under this Decision'.
Adam Banaszak (PL/ECR), CoR Rapporteur on Civil Protection Mechanism and Vice President of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region, welcomed the document with satisfaction: "We called on the Parliament and the Council to include local and regional authorities and we find this across the document. We asked for common guidelines defining the content of the risk management plans and for regular reporting to the Commission, to avoid that the plans become obsolete over time. I am pleased to see our proposals taken on board by the co-legislators".
Overview of the major events in Europe 1998-2009
Hazard type / Recorded events / Number of fatalities / Overall losses (EUR billion)
Storm 155 / 729 / 44.338
Extreme temperature events 101 / 77 551 / 9.962
Forest fires 35 / 191 / 6.917
Drought 8 / 0 / 4.940
Flood 213 / 1.126 / 52.173
Snow avalanche 8 / 130 / 0.742
Landslide 9 / 212 / 0.551
Earthquake 49 / 18.864 / 29.205
Volcano 1 / 0 / 0.004
Oil spills 9 / n/a / No comprehensive data available (a)
Industrial accidents 339 / 169 / No comprehensive data available (b)
Toxic spills 4 / n/a / No comprehensive data available (c)
Total 928 / 98.972 / 148.831
Source: Mapping the impacts of natural hazards and technological accidents in Europe, European Environment Agency, Technical report No 13/2010