Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - A Community approach on the prevention of natural and man made disasters {SEC(2009)202} {SEC(2009)203}
Date: 2009-02-23
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: civil defence, environmental risk prevention, man-made disaster, natural disaster, research

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 23.2.2009 
COM(2009) 82 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

A Community approach on the prevention of natural and man-made disasters 

{SEC(2009)202} 
{SEC(2009)203} 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

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3.1 

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 3 

The need for a Community approach for the prevention of natural and man-made 
disasters ........................................................................................................................ 4 

Key elements of a community approach on prevention............................................... 4 

Creating the conditions for the development of knowledge based disaster prevention 
policies at all levels of government.............................................................................. 4 

3.1.1  Creating an inventory of information on disasters....................................................... 4 

3.1.2 

Spreading best practices............................................................................................... 5 

3.1.3  Developing guidelines on hazard/risk mapping........................................................... 5 

3.1.4 

Encouraging research activities.................................................................................... 5 

3.2 

Linking the actors and policies throughout the disaster management cycle................ 6 

3.2.1 

Extending the lessons learnt exercises to disaster prevention...................................... 6 

3.2.2 

Training and awareness-raising in the area of disaster prevention .............................. 6 

3.2.3 

Improving the linking between actors.......................................................................... 6 

3.2.4  Reinforcing early warning tools................................................................................... 7 

3.3 

Making existing instruments perform better for disaster prevention ........................... 7 

3.3.1  A more efficient targeting of Community funding ...................................................... 7 

3.3.2 

Taking account of disaster prevention in existing Community legislation.................. 7 

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Reinforcing international cooperation in the field of prevention................................. 8 

Conclusion and way forward ....................................................................................... 8 

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

A Community approach on the prevention of natural and man-made disasters 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Between 1990 and 2007 the European Union witnessed a marked increase in the number and 
severity of both natural and man-made disasters, with a particularly significant increase in the 
former. The loss of human life, the destruction of economic and social infrastructure and the 
degradation of already fragile ecosystems is expected to worsen as climate change increases 
the  frequency  and  magnitude  of  extreme  meteorological  events,  such  as  heat  waves,  storms 
and heavy rains1. 

Analyses  carried  out  by  the  UN  and  other  international  organisations  have  highlighted  a 
growing vulnerability to disasters, partly as a consequence of increasingly intensive land use, 
industrial development, urban expansion and infrastructure construction2. 

The  Community  has  already  developed  a  set  of  instruments  to  address  various  aspects  of 
disaster  preparedness,  response  and  recovery.  There  are  also  a  number  of  sector-specific 
initiatives covering floods3, technological disasters4, and oil spills5 which deal with elements 
of disaster prevention. There is, however, no strategic approach, at the Community level, for 
disaster prevention. 

The  objective  of  this  Communication  is  to  identify  measures  which  could  be  included  in  a 
Community strategy for the prevention of natural and man-made disasters, building upon and 
linking existing measures. Prevention is understood as (i) where possible preventing disasters 
from happening, and (ii) where they are unavoidable taking steps to minimise their impacts.  

This  Communication  follows  up  on  the  commitment  made  by  the  Commission  to  develop 
proposals on disaster prevention6 and responds to the calls of the European Parliament7 and 
the Council8 for increased action at Community level to prevent disasters and mitigate their 
impacts. It contributes to the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-20159 
and  is  part  of  a  package  comprising  an  external  and  internal  dimension10.  It  does  not  cover 
conflict-related complex emergencies or acts of terrorism. 

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reported in the CRED (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters) database 
ISDR, Global Trends Report, 2007 
Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risks 
Council Directive 96/82/EC on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, 
the Seveso Directive 
For  example,  Regulation  1726/2002  banning  single-hull  takers  from  European  ports  and  Regulation 
2038/2006 on multi-annual funding for the action of the European Maritime Safety Agency in the field 
of response to pollution caused by ships 
COM(2008)130 
European Parliament Resolution of 19 June 2008 on stepping up the Union’s disaster response capacity 
European Parliament Resolution of 14 November 2007 on the regional impact of earthquakes 
Council Conclusions of 16 June 2008 
Adopted at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction  
EU Strategy for supporting disaster risk reduction in developing countries (COM(2009)xx). 

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2. 

THE NEED FOR A COMMUNITY APPROACH FOR THE PREVENTION OF NATURAL AND 
MAN-MADE DISASTERS 

There are a number of reasons why disaster prevention needs to be considered at the European 
level. Most obviously, disasters do not respect national borders and can have a transnational 
dimension  (as  was  the  case  with  the  2002  floods,  and  the  2007  forest  fires).  Disasters  can 
have a negative impact on existing Community policies such as agriculture and infrastructure. 
The  economic  impacts  of  disasters11  may  adversely  affect  the  economic  growth  and 
competitiveness of EU regions (and hence the EU as a whole). Finally, Community funding is 
often required to deal with the aftermath of disasters. 

Member States already have, to varying degrees, policies aimed at the prevention of disasters. 
Action at the Community level should complement national actions and should focus on areas 
where a common approach is more effective than separate national approaches. In particular, 
the EU will seek to reduce the impact of disasters within the EU by: 

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the  development  of  knowledge  based  disaster  prevention  policies  at  all  levels  of 
government; 

linking the relevant actors and policies throughout the disaster management cycle;  

improving  the  effectiveness  of  existing  policy  instruments  with  regard  to  disaster 
prevention. 

A Community approach to disaster prevention should explicitly seek to build on measures that 
have already been taken at European level – either sector legislation or the possibility of using 
Community funds for preventions activities12.  

3. 

3.1. 

KEY ELEMENTS OF A COMMUNITY APPROACH ON PREVENTION  

Creating  the  conditions  for  the  development  of  knowledge  based  disaster 
prevention policies at all levels of government 

A  better  understanding  of  disasters  is  a  pre-requisite  for  developing  efficient  disaster 
prevention policies.  

3.1.1.  Creating an inventory of information on disasters 

Available  data  on  disasters  is  currently  limited  and  suffers  from  a  lack  of  comparability: 
several criteria are used, such as the number of victims, the amount of damage, the number of 
events  occurring  in  a  given  period.  Data  on  the  physical  and  economic  impacts  of  disasters 
remains indicative at best.  

The Commission will develop a comprehensive inventory of existing sources of information 
related  to  disasters.  This  will  make  it  possible  to  identify  comparability  issues  as  well  as 
information gaps. It will also provide the basis for assessing how to better share information 
within the EU. 

Information on the economic impacts of disasters is particularly important since it can allow 
policy  makers  to  properly  assess  the  costs  and  benefits  of  different  disaster  prevention 

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The economic impact of disasters in Europe has been estimated at €15 billion yearly. (ABI (2005) and 
Munich Re (2008)) 
These  include  the  European  Agricultural  Fund  for  Rural  Development,  the  Civil  Protection  Financial 
Instrument,  LIFE+,  the  ICT  Policy  Support  Programme  and  the  Research  Framework  Programme. 
Furthermore,  €5.8  billion  is  directly  allocated 
to  “risk  prevention”  measures  under  the  2007-2013 
Cohesion Policy. 

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measures.  The  Commission  will  launch  a  stakeholder  group  to  review  the  existing 
information.  On  the  basis  of  this  assessment,  the  Commission  will  take  the  measures 
necessary to fill any identified knowledge gaps. 

3.1.2. 

Spreading best practices 

The  Commission  will  launch  an  inventory  of  best  practices  and  facilitate  the  exchange  of 
information between stakeholders. Studies and cooperation projects involving Member States 
and other stakeholders will be carried out.  

The  experience  from  implementing  existing  prevention  legislation  will  be  used  to  assess  if 
approaches  that  are  currently  applied  to  specific  sectors  could  be  more  widely  used.  For 
example,  the  Floods  Directive  includes  hazard  and  risk  mapping  and  risk  management 
procedures  while  the  Seveso  Directive  includes  provisions  on  land  use  planning,  safety 
reports  and  emergency  plans.  It  may  be  that  these  techniques  could  be  useful  with  the 
prevention of other disasters. 

3.1.3.  Developing guidelines on hazard/risk mapping 

Hazard  mapping  aims  to  identify  the  areas  prone  to  particular  risks.  It  provides  essential 
information to the public and is an important tool for planning authorities.  

Member States are in the process of developing a number of initiatives relating to hazard and 
risk  mapping.  The  diversity  of  methodological  approaches  has  reduced  comparability  of 
information and makes it difficult for information to be consolidated at the European level. As 
a result there is no overall picture of the risks the EU is facing. Policy makers and businesses 
(e.g. infrastructure developers, the insurance sector) would benefit from better comparability 
of hazard/risk information across the EU.  

The  Commission  will  carry  out  a  study  on  current  practices  of  hazard  and  risk  mapping  in 
Member  States.  On  this  basis,  Community  guidelines  for  hazard  and  risk  mapping  will  be 
developed,  building  upon  existing  Community  initiatives13.  These  should  focus  on  disasters 
with potential cross-border impacts (e.g. floods or accidental release of chemicals and radio-
nuclear  agents),  exceptional  events  (major  storms),  large-scale  disasters  (earthquakes),  and 
disasters  for  which  the  cost  of  recovery  measures  appears  to  be  disproportionate  when 
compared to that of preventive measures. The possibility of developing a specific initiative on 
forest fires will also be explored.  

3.1.4.  Encouraging research activities 

Several  themes  under  the  Seventh  Framework  Programme  for  Research  and  Technological 
Development  (2007-2013)14  address  natural  and  man  made  hazards.  Through 
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implementation of this Programme the Commission will: 

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Improve coordination of Community-financed research in this area, particularly with 
regard to high-priority topics, such as those generated by climate change;  

Invest  in  research  on  the  development  of  early  warning  systems  and  on 
interoperability of information and monitoring systems; 

Continue  the  research  activities  of  the  Joint  Research  Centre  linked  to  the  disaster 
management cycle; 

such as the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative 
Environment,  Infrastructures,  Space/  Copernicus,  Security,  and  Information  &  Communication 
Technology. 

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Make  research  results  easily  and  systematically  available  to  actors  in  the  field  of 
prevention and develop a database for experts with specialist knowledge. 

3.2. 

Linking the actors and policies throughout the disaster management cycle 

A  range  of  Community  and  national  policies  can  be  managed  in  a  way  that  supports  the 
disaster  management  cycle  —  prevention,  preparedness,  response,  recovery.  This  requires 
linking  the  actors  involved  in  developing  and  implementing  measures  that  can  have 
significant impacts on disaster prevention. The Commission will work to foster best practice 
across the EU.  

3.2.1.  Extending the lessons learnt exercises to disaster prevention  

The  Commission  has  established  a  programme  of  "lessons  learnt"  from  interventions 
conducted  within  the  framework  of  the  Community  Mechanism  for  civil  protection. 
Evaluation of the direct response given to disasters is used to identify potential improvements. 
The Commission will extend the lessons learnt programme to look at potential improvements 
to disaster prevention.  

3.2.2.  Training and awareness-raising in the area of disaster prevention 

The Commission is preparing proposals for enhancing Community-level disaster management 
training. The Commission will integrate prevention into these proposals and develop specific 
courses on prevention within the Community civil protection training programme. 

Awareness-raising  of  the  general  public  can  also  contribute  to  disaster  prevention  –  for 
example,  citizens  should  be  aware  of  what  to  do  in  the  event  of  an  earthquake.  The 
Commission will use the upcoming calls for cooperation projects under the Civil Protection 
Financial  Instrument  to  include  the  possibility  to  support  projects  on  public  awareness  and 
education,  such  as  for  example  the  identification  of  best  practices  and  the  preparation  of 
school curricula. 

3.2.3. 

Improving the linking between actors  

Experience  in  some  Member  States  demonstrates  the  usefulness  of  setting-up  coordinated 
mechanisms for crisis management, involving different public and private stakeholders.  

The  Commission  encourages  the  Member  States  to  implement  such  initiatives.  This  should 
cover  (i)  linking  the  actors  involved  in  disaster  prevention,  e.g.  land  planners  need  to 
communicate  with  agencies  responsible  for  hazard  and  risk  mapping,  and  (ii)  linking  the 
actors active in different phases of disaster management, e.g. forest recovery projects should 
facilitate the intervention of emergency response services. 

A  European  network  composed  of  representatives  of  the  various  national  departments 
concerned  of  all  the  Member  States  could  provide  a  useful  forum  for  elaborating 
recommendations  on  best  practices.  The  Commission  intends  to  create  such  a  network 
covering the departments in charge of land planning, risk and hazard mapping, protection of 
the  environment,  and  emergency  preparedness  and  response.  Circulation  of  information 
within the network will be facilitated through a web-based tool. 

The  network  will  be  used  to  form  working  groups  that  will  develop  recommendations  on 
policy coordination measures to be taken at Community, national, or sub-national levels. The 
first priorities of the network will concern: 

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The identification of best practices in linking the relevant actors and policies through 
the disaster management cycle; 

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Linking the relevant actors and policies that should be involved in the prevention of 
forest and other wild fires in the EU. 

3.2.4.  Reinforcing early warning tools 

The ability of citizens and policy makers to mitigate disasters depends, to a great extent, on 
access to reliable early warning tools. The Commission will reinforce the link between early 
warning systems by:  

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Strengthening cooperation with the network of European meteorological services to 
integrate  short-term  flood  alerts  (including  coastal  floods)  in  the  early  warning 
systems; 

Reducing alert times of existing early warning systems; 

Linking  existing  alert  systems  for  forest  fires  (EFFIS)  and  floods  (EFAS)  in  the 
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS); 

Continuing  the  cooperation  with  the  southern  Mediterranean  countries  that  aims  at 
improving the access of existing early warning systems to real time information; 

Increasing the awareness of the citizens regarding the European Emergency Number 
112 in partnership with the Member States.  

3.3.  Making existing instruments perform better for disaster prevention  

Several Community financial and legislative instruments support Member States action in the 
field  of  prevention.  The  Commission  will  ensure  that  prevention  concerns  are  taken  into 
account  in  a  more  consistent  and  efficient  way  across  policies  and  programmes  (such  as 
common agricultural or rural development policies).  

3.3.1.  A more efficient targeting of Community funding  

Disaster prevention should be viewed as a sensible investment since the costs of preventative 
measures  are  typically  many  times  less  than  those  of  remediation.  To  improve  the 
effectiveness of Community funding for the prevention of disasters the Commission, in close 
cooperation with Member States, will:  

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Establish,  in  2009,  an  inventory  of  existing  Community  instruments  capable  of 
supporting disaster prevention activities. The objective would be to assess the degree 
of use of such instruments, as well as to identify any gaps in their coverage;  

Develop a catalogue of prevention measures that could be considered by the Member 
States for EU funding (for example, include measures integrating preventive action 
in reforestation/afforestation projects). 

On  this  basis,  the  Member  States  will  be  invited  to  assess  the  possibility  of  improving  the 
integration of disaster prevention in national operational programming of EU funding. When 
such  needs  are  identified,  the  Commission  would  support  improving  national  operational 
programmes.  

The  review  cycles  of  EU  funding  instruments  and  the  definition  of  the  next  financing 
perspectives  will  provide  additional  opportunities  to  further  consider  integrating  risk 
prevention in EU funding. 

3.3.2.  Taking account of disaster prevention in existing Community legislation 

Prevention concerns should be taken into account during the planned reviews of a number of 
items of EU legislation. These include: 

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Council  Directive  85/337/EEC15  on  the  assessment  of  the  effects  of  certain  public 
and  private  projects  on  the  environment  (EIA  Directive)  as  amended  by  Directives 
97/11/EC16  and  2003/35/EC17.  This  could  potentially  examine  whether 
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environmental  impact  assessment  of  individual  projects  sufficiently  addresses  the 
direct and indirect effects on disaster risk prevention. 

The  Seveso  Directive  1996/82/EC  which  provides  important  links  to  land  use  and 
spatial planning.  

The  Commission  will  also  work  to  mitigate  the  impacts  of  earthquakes  by  encouraging 
Member States to fully integrate the common European design codes for buildings and civil 
works  (in  particular  “Euro  code  8”)  into  their national  planning  regulations.  In  this  context, 
Member  States  are  invited  to  make  full  use  of  the  opportunities  provided  by  the  public 
procurement directives18 

4. 

REINFORCING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF PREVENTION  

The Commission will emphasise disaster prevention in upcoming cooperation initiatives with 
third countries, in particular: 

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With  Candidate  Countries  and  potential  Candidate  Countries  via  their  participation 
in,  or  association  with,  the  Community  Mechanism  and  implementation  of  the 
Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative; 
Within  the  European  Neighbourhood  Policy  (ENP)19,  by  reinforcing  the  disaster 
prevention chapter in existing agreements; 

Through  the  programme  for  prevention,  preparedness  and  response  to  natural  and 
man-made  disasters  (PPRD)20  in  the  framework  of  the  Euro-Mediterranean 
Partnership; 

With Eastern ENP partners on prevention to natural and manmade disasters.  

The Commission will coordinate with the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction 
(UN-ISDR)  and  ensure  close  ties  with  the  EU  Strategy  for  Disaster  Risk  Reduction  in 
developing countries.  

5. 

CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD  

This Communication sets out an overall European approach to the prevention of disasters. It 
identifies  areas  for  action  and  outlines  specific  measures  to  boost  disaster  prevention  in  the 
short  term.  The  implementation  of  these  measures  will  take  account  of  actions  already 
undertaken by the Community, thus creating the necessary conditions for bringing the latter 
together under a consistent and effective Community framework.  

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OJ L 175, 5.7.1985 
OJ L 73, 14.3.1997 
OJ L 156, 25.6.2003 
Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC (OJ L134, 30.4.2004) provide that technical specifications shall 
be formulated according to mandatory national technical rules compatible with applicable Community 
law or by reference to national standards transposing European ones 
COM(2004) 373 
Barcelona  Process:  Union  for  the  Mediterranean  ministerial  conference  -  Final  declaration,  Marseille 
4th November 2008 

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The European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the 
Committee  of  the  Regions  are  invited  to  provide  the  Commission  with  further  input  with  a 
view  to  consolidating  a  Community  strategy  for  the  prevention  of  natural  and  man-made 
disasters. 

The  Commission  will  carry  out  further  consultations  and  liaise  with  stakeholders  from  the 
public and private sector to promote this approach and if appropriate will propose to develop 
it further.  

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