WRITTEN QUESTION E-2349/00

by Véronique Mathieu (EDD) to the Commission

(13 July 2000)

Subject: Civil protection and natural or technological disasters

The EU must react in proper fashion to natural or technological disasters. Several months after the storms of December 1999 and the wreck of the Erika, the Commission has undertaken to submit, by the end of July 2000, a communication and a proposal to the Council for the completion of the Community action programme for civil protection established by the Council decision of 9 December 1999.

1. Can the Commission explain the fact that at the time of the disasters of December 1999 coordination at Community level was not carried out under this programme, despite its having entered into force on 1 January 2000?

2. How does the Commission propose to improve communication, not only between the Member States' civil protection authorities but also between the Commission and the Member States and between the different Commission DGs?

3. Has the Commission acted to identify the operational resources existing in the Member States for civil protection?

4. In what fashion has the Commission decided to link up its new civil protection proposals to the Council resolution of 8 July 1991 on mutual assistance between Member States in case of natural and technological disaster(1), in particular as regards the environmental effects of disasters?

5. How does the Commission intend to ensure the coordination and coherence of action of a future European intervention force, whose creation would compound the proliferation of crisis centres, units and management committees now existing under Union authority?

6. Can the Commission state how it intends to obtain guarantees from the Member States concerning their political commitment to cooperating with its forthcoming proposals?

(1) OJ C 198, 27.7.1991, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(7 September 2000)

1. The Community action programme the Honourable Member is referring to is aimed only peripherally at disaster intervention. Its main purpose is to develop and finance measures relating to prevention, preparedness and public information. Had the storms of December 1999 necessitated Community coordination, this would have happened within the framework of the resolution of 8 July 1991 on mutual assistance, to which the Honourable Member also refers.

2. Regarding communication between the Member States and between these and the Commission, the latter has already launched a project through the IDA (interchange of data between administrations) framework to set up a reliable and effective communication network. As for communication between the Commission's own departments, an inter-departmental group has been set up inter alia to prepare thoroughly the proposals the Honourable Member refers to in the fourth point of her question.

3. Implementation of the resolution of 8 July 1991 already included broad identification of mutual assistance capacity in the Member States. More detailed identification of teams available to lend such assistance, and a training programme to teach those teams how to work together and complement one another, will be one of the two keystones of the forthcoming proposal.

4. The forthcoming proposal will reinforce the provisions of the resolution of 8 July 1991, in respect of which it will represent a qualitative leap forward. The question of the environmental effects of disasters is an integral part of all the Commission's civil protection work. However, civil protection does not extend to rectifying environmental effects once the emergency situation management period has come to an end.

5. The forthcoming proposal should create an effective tool which the Member States and the Commission will be able to use for interventions within the Community. The tool will also be available to the Commission for interventions outside the Community.

6. The political commitment of the Member States to use the proposed system is the main precondition for its working properly. Such commitment will need to be formally confirmed at ministerial level.