WRITTEN QUESTION E-1782/02

by Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN) to the Commission

(24 June 2002)

Subject: Measures in favour of volunteer civil protection

In the light of my previous written question E-0146/02(1), and the subsequent reply from the Commission; bearing in mind that the creation of a European Civil Protection Agency is bound to have the participatory effect engendered by any operational structure of its type, especially vis-à-vis the Member States less conscious of this issue, and would also offer the advantages of:

(a) the development and standardisation, with a view to the utmost efficiency, of procedures and methodologies for analysing and mitigating natural and technological risks by going beyond the criterion of territoriality, which is one poorly suited to the concept of disasters;

(b) the formation of a task force of well-trained disaster management experts that would be ready to assist Member States struck by disasters, be these natural or man-made ones;

can the Commission:

1. clearly indicate whether it considers the creation of a European Civil Protection Agency to be a feasible objective;

2. state whether it in any case considers that volunteer civil protection action should be promoted and supported without delay, with basic training activities and with facilities and equipment that might harness advanced technologies, and that coordination and integration should be fostered between the Member States in this area, since this is one of the major resources available to them when dealing with states of emergency arising from natural disasters and other types of disaster?

(1) OJ C 172 E, 18.7.2002, p. 155.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(25 July 2002)

The Commission considers that the creation of a European Civil Protection Agency is not an aim in itself and that cooperation on civil protection at EU level can be developed quite satisfactorily with the structures the Commission already has in place.

In view of this, and further to the instruments and initiatives already mentioned in its reply to his written question E-0146/02(1), the Commission would draw the Honourable Member's attention to a recent development in Community action in this field.

Following the series of natural and technological disasters that have struck the European Union and neighbouring countries in the last few years, the Commission has proposed the setting-up of a Community mechanism to coordinate interventions by national civil protection teams inside and outside the Union. This mechanism, adopted by the Council on 23 October 2001(2), is based on the principle of mutual assistance and allows early identification and mobilisation of operational resources in the event of emergencies of any kind, whether natural or man-made.

Pursuant to this Decision, the Commission has set up a Monitoring and Information Centre, operational on a 24-hour basis. The Centre will ensure that the most appropriate intervention teams and resources are rapidly identified and dispatched in the event of an emergency.

Effective use of this new mechanism will be achieved through intensive training and full-scale simulation exercises. The purpose of the training programme is to ensure that teams from different Member States can work together effectively in an emergency despite differences in national systems. This will enable the Community to consolidate its overall emergency response capacity and adjust it as required.

Regarding the specific role of volunteers, the Commission would draw the Honourable Member's attention to an initiative recently developed in the context of the Community action programme in the field of civil protection(3) on the role of non-governmental organisations' (NGOs) volunteers in civil protection. The results of this project, which are accessible on the Commission's civil protection unit website(4), include a wide range of recommendations aimed at improving the involvement of civil protection NGOs in general and of individual volunteers in particular.

(1) OJ C 172 E, 18.7.2002, p. 155.

(2) Council Decision 2001/792/EC, Euratom of 23 October 2001, OJ L 297, 15.11.2001.

(3) Council Decision 1999/847/EC of 9 December 1999, OJ L 327, 21.12.1999.

(4) http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/civil/.