Council Resolution

of 28 January 2002

on reinforcing cooperation in the field of civil protection training

(2002/C 43/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

RECALLING the resolution of the Council and the representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 31 October 1994 on strengthening Community cooperation on civil protection, and in particular the desire expressed therein that cooperation may be developed between schools and national training centres that are active in the field of civil protection(1);

RECALLING the resolution of the Council and of the representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 26 February 2001 on strengthening the capabilities of the European Union in the field of civil protection(2) which reiterated that cooperation between schools and national training centres that are active in the field of civil protection should progress at a faster pace;

EMPHASISING that while intergovernmental initiatives putting such cooperation in place have already enabled the requirements and content of that cooperation to be identified, more concrete results are now required;

CONVINCED of the growing importance of training at every level to ensure that citizens are better protected against natural and technological hazards;

RECALLING the repeated wish of the candidate countries to be able to initiate cooperation on civil protection training with the Member States and with the Commission;

WHEREAS, in the interests of efficiency, greater synergy should be introduced between programmes and courses of training for personnel called upon to carry out emergency service interventions with a view to arriving at the establishment of common programmes;

WHEREAS the creation at Community level of a network of schools and training centres active in the field of civil protection in the Member States, laying the foundations for the subsequent creation of, for instance, a European civil protection college involving these training institutions, would speed up the introduction of the desired cooperation;

WHEREAS the recent Council decisions on civil protection, notably Council Decision 2001/722/EC, Euratom of 23 October 2001 establishing a Community mechanism to facilitate reinforced cooperation in civil protection assistance interventions(3), provide a framework which would facilitate the creation of a network of schools and training centres active in the field of civil protection in the Member States, in particular through the creation of a pilot project entrusted with the task of establishing the said network;

WHEREAS this network of schools and training centres could also encompass a major project aiming at creating a European virtual academy for civil protection as well as a system of exchanges of experts, developed within the framework of the Community Action Programmes on civil protection;

INVITES THE COMMISSION:

(1) to look at any initiative supporting the creation of a network of schools and training centres active in the field of civil protection in the Member States over an initial three-year pilot phase, drawing particularly on experience with the relevant initiatives developed in the framework of the Community action programmes on civil protection,

(2) to consider the possibility of a financial support to this initiative on the basis of the financial interventions provided for educational activities by Council Decision of 9 December 1999 establishing a Community action programme in the field of civil protection(4) for the period 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2004 or by the said Council Decision establishing a Community mechanism to facilitate reinforced cooperation in civil protection assistance interventions,

(3) to involve the candidate countries in its work.

(4) to consider, on expiry of this pilot phase and in the light of the results obtained, any initiative introducing long-term cooperation on civil protection training, for instance through the creation of a European civil protection college which would institutionalise the aforementioned network.

(1) OJ C 313, 10.11.1994, p 1.

(2) OJ C 82, 13.3.2001, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 297, 15.11.2001, p 7.

(4) OJ L 327, 21.12.1999, p. 53.