Article 1 General objective and subject matter
1. The Union Civil Protection Mechanism ("the Union Mechanism") shall aim to strengthen the cooperation between the Union and the Member States and to facilitate coordination in the field of civil protection in order to improve the effectiveness of systems for preventing, preparing for and responding to natural and man-made disasters. 2. The protection to be ensured by the Union Mechanism shall cover primarily people, but also the environment and property, including cultural heritage, against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters, including the consequences of acts of terrorism, technological, radiological or environmental disasters, marine pollution, and acute health emergencies, occurring inside or outside the Union. In the case of the consequences of acts of terrorism or radiological disasters, the Union Mechanism may cover only preparedness and response actions. 3. The Union Mechanism shall promote solidarity between the Member States through practical cooperation and coordination, without prejudice to the Member States' primary responsibility to protect people, the environment, and property, including cultural heritage, on their territory against disasters and to provide their disaster-management systems with sufficient capabilities to enable them to cope adequately and in a consistent manner with disasters of a nature and magnitude that can reasonably be expected and prepared for. 4. This Decision lays down the general rules for the Union Mechanism and the rules for the provision of financial assistance under the Union Mechanism. 5. The Union Mechanism shall not affect obligations under existing relevant legal acts of the Union, under the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community or under existing international agreements. 6. This Decision shall not apply to the actions carried out under Regulation (EC) No 1257/96, Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002, Regulation (EC) No 1717/2006, Decision No 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 14 ) or Union legislation concerning action programmes in the fields of health, home affairs and justice.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 1 General objective and subject matter):
1. The Union Civil Protection Mechanism ("the Union Mechanism") shall aim to strengthen the cooperation between the Union and the Member States and to facilitate coordination in the field of civil protection in order to improve the effectiveness of systems for preventing, preparing for and responding to natural and man-made disasters. 2. The protection to be ensured by the Union Mechanism shall cover primarily people, but also the environment and property, including cultural heritage, against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters, including the consequences of acts of terrorism, technological, radiological or environmental disasters, marine pollution, hydrogeological instability and acute health emergencies, occurring inside or outside the Union. In the case of the consequences of acts of terrorism or radiological disasters, the Union Mechanism may cover only preparedness and response actions. 3. The Union Mechanism shall promote solidarity between the Member States through practical cooperation and coordination, without prejudice to the Member States’ primary responsibility to protect people, the environment and property, including cultural heritage, on their territory against disasters and to provide their disaster-management systems with sufficient capabilities to enable them to prevent, and cope adequately and in a consistent manner with, disasters of a nature and magnitude that can reasonably be expected and prepared for. 4. This Decision lays down the general rules for the Union Mechanism and the rules for the provision of financial assistance under the Union Mechanism. 5. The Union Mechanism shall not affect obligations under existing relevant legal acts of the Union, under the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community or under existing international agreements. 6. This Decision shall not apply to the actions carried out under Regulation (EC) No 1257/96, Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002, Regulation (EC) No 1717/2006, Decision No 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 1 ) or Union legislation concerning action programmes in the fields of health, home affairs and justice.
Article 2 Scope
1. This Decision shall apply to cooperation in the field of civil protection. Such cooperation shall include: (a) prevention and preparedness actions inside the Union and, as far as Articles 5(2) and 13(3) and 28 are concerned, also outside the Union; and (b) actions to assist with the response to immediate adverse consequences of a disaster inside or outside the Union, including in the countries referred to in Article 28(1), following a request for assistance through the Union Mechanism. 2. This Decision shall take into account the special needs of isolated, outermost and other regions or islands of the Union in terms of prevention of, preparedness for and response to disasters as well as the special needs of the overseas countries and territories in terms of disaster response.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 2 Scope):
2. This Decision shall take into account the special needs of isolated, outermost and other regions or islands of the Union in terms of prevention of, preparedness for and response to disasters as well as the special needs of the overseas countries and territories in terms of disaster response.
Article 3 Specific objectives
1. The Union Mechanism shall support, complement and facilitate coordination of Member States’ action in pursuit of the following common specific objectives: (a) to achieve a high level of protection against disasters by preventing or reducing their potential effects, by fostering a culture of prevention and by improving cooperation between the civil protection and other relevant services; (b) to enhance preparedness at Member State and Union level to respond to disasters; (c) to facilitate rapid and efficient response in the event of disasters or imminent disasters; and (d) to increase public awareness and preparedness for disasters. 2. Indicators shall be used for monitoring, evaluating and reviewing as appropriate the application of this Decision. Those indicators shall be: (a) progress in implementing the disaster prevention framework: measured by the number of Member States that have made available to the Commission a summary of their risk assessments and an assessment of their risk management capability as referred to in Article 6; (b) progress in increasing the level of readiness for disasters: measured by the quantity of response capacities included in the voluntary pool in relation to the capacity goals referred to in Article 11 and the number of modules registered in the CECIS; (c) progress in improving the response to disasters: measured by the speed of interventions under the Union Mechanism and the extent to which the assistance contributes to the needs on the ground; and (d) progress in increasing public awareness and preparedness for disasters: measured by the level of awareness of Union citizens of the risks in their region.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Article 4 Definitions
For the purpose of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply: 1. 'disaster' means any situation which has or may have a severe impact on people, the environment, or property, including cultural heritage; 2. 'response' means any action taken upon request for assistance under the Union Mechanism in the event of an imminent disaster, or during or after a disaster, to address its immediate adverse consequences; 3. 'preparedness' means a state of readiness and capability of human and material means, structures, communities and organisations enabling them to ensure an effective rapid response to a disaster, obtained as a result of action taken in advance; 4. 'prevention' means any action aimed at reducing risks or mitigating adverse consequences of a disaster for people, the environment and property, including cultural heritage; 5. 'early warning' means the timely and effective provision of information that allows action to be taken to avoid or reduce risks and the adverse impacts of a disaster, and to facilitate preparedness for an effective response; 6. 'module' means a self-sufficient and autonomous predefined task- and needs-driven arrangement of Member States’ capabilities or a mobile operational team of the Member States, representing a combination of human and material means that can be described in terms of its capacity for intervention or by the task(s) it is able to undertake; 7. 'risk assessment' means the overall cross-sectoral process of risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation undertaken at national or appropriate sub-national level; 8. 'risk management capability' means the ability of a Member State or its regions to reduce, adapt to or mitigate risks (impacts and likelihood of a disaster), identified in its risk assessments to levels that are acceptable in that Member State. Risk management capability is assessed in terms of the technical, financial and administrative capacity to carry out adequate: (a) risk assessments; (b) risk management planning for prevention and preparedness; and (c) risk prevention and preparedness measures; 9. 'host nation support' means any action undertaken in the preparedness and response phases by the country receiving or sending assistance, or by the Commission, to remove foreseeable obstacles to international assistance offered through the Union Mechanism. It includes support from Member States to facilitate the transiting of this assistance through their territory; 10. 'response capacity' means assistance that may be provided through the Union Mechanism upon request; 11. 'logistical support' means the essential equipment or services required for expert teams referred to in Article 17(1) to perform their tasks, inter alia communication, temporary accommodation, food or in-country transport.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 4 Definitions):
For the purpose of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply: 1. 'disaster' means any situation which has or may have a severe impact on people, the environment, or property, including cultural heritage; 2. 'response' means any action taken upon request for assistance under the Union Mechanism in the event of an imminent disaster, or during or after a disaster, to address its immediate adverse consequences; 3. 'preparedness' means a state of readiness and capability of human and material means, structures, communities and organisations enabling them to ensure an effective rapid response to a disaster, obtained as a result of action taken in advance; 4. 'prevention' means any action aimed at reducing risks or mitigating adverse consequences of a disaster for people, the environment and property, including cultural heritage; 4a. 'Union disaster resilience goals' means non-binding objectives established in the area of civil protection to support prevention and preparedness actions for the purposes of improving the capacity of the Union and its Member States to withstand the effects of a disaster which causes or is capable of causing multi-country transboundary effects; 5. 'early warning' means the timely and effective provision of information that allows action to be taken to avoid or reduce risks and the adverse impacts of a disaster, and to facilitate preparedness for an effective response; 6. 'module' means a self-sufficient and autonomous predefined task- and needs-driven arrangement of Member States’ capabilities or a mobile operational team of the Member States, representing a combination of human and material means that can be described in terms of its capacity for intervention or by the task(s) it is able to undertake; 7. 'risk assessment' means the overall cross-sectoral process of risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation undertaken at national or appropriate sub-national level; 9. 'host nation support' means any action undertaken in the preparedness and response phases by the country receiving or sending assistance, or by the Commission, to remove foreseeable obstacles to international assistance offered through the Union Mechanism. It includes support from Member States to facilitate the transiting of this assistance through their territory; 10. 'response capacity' means assistance that may be provided through the Union Mechanism upon request; 11. 'logistical support' means the essential equipment or services required for expert teams referred to in Article 17(1) to perform their tasks, inter alia communication, temporary accommodation, food or in-country transport; 12. 'participating State' means a third country participating in the Union Mechanism in accordance with Article 28(1).
Article 5 Prevention actions
1. To fulfil the prevention objectives and carry out prevention actions, the Commission shall: (a) take action to improve the knowledge base on disaster risks and facilitate the sharing of knowledge, best practices and information, including among Member States that share common risks; (b) support and promote Member States' risk assessment and mapping activity through the sharing of good practices, and facilitate access to specific knowledge and expertise on issues of common interest; (c) establish and regularly update a cross-sectoral overview and map of natural and man-made disaster risks the Union may face, by taking a coherent approach across different policy areas that may address or affect disaster prevention and taking due account of the likely impacts of climate change; (d) encourage an exchange of good practices on preparing national civil protection systems to cope with the impact of climate change; (e) promote and support the development and implementation of Member States' risk management activity through the sharing of good practices, and facilitate access to specific knowledge and expertise on issues of common interest; (f) compile and disseminate the information made available by Member States; organise an exchange of experiences about the assessment of risk management capability; develop, together with the Member States and by 22 December 2014, guidelines on the content, methodology and structure of those assessments; and facilitate the sharing of good practices in prevention and preparedness planning, including through voluntary peer reviews; (g) report periodically, in accordance with the deadlines set out in point (c) of Article 6, to the European Parliament and to the Council on the progress made in the implementation of Article 6; (h) promote the use of various Union funds which may support sustainable disaster prevention and encourage the Member States and regions to exploit those funding opportunities; (i) highlight the importance of risk prevention and support the Member States in awareness-raising, public information and education; (j) promote prevention measures in the Member States and third countries, referred to in Article 28, through the sharing of good practices, and facilitate access to specific knowledge and expertise on issues of common interest; and (k) in close consultation with Member States, take additional necessary supporting and complementary prevention action in order to achieve the objective specified in point (a) of Article 3(1). 2. At the request of a Member State, a third country or the United Nations or its agencies, the Commission may deploy an expert team on site to provide advice on prevention measures.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 5 Prevention actions):
2. At the request of a Member State, a third country or the United Nations or its agencies, the Commission may deploy an expert team on site to provide advice on prevention measures.
Article 6 Risk management
In order to promote an effective and coherent approach to prevention of and preparedness for disasters by sharing non-sensitive information, namely information whose disclosure would not be contrary to the essential interests of Member States' security, and best practices within the Union Mechanism, Member States shall: (a) develop risk assessments at national or appropriate sub-national level and make available to the Commission a summary of the relevant elements thereof by 22 December 2015 and every three years thereafter; (b) develop and refine their disaster risk management planning at national or appropriate sub-national level; (c) make available to the Commission the assessment of their risk management capability at national or appropriate sub-national level every three years following the finalisation of the relevant guidelines as referred to in point (f) of Article 5(1) and whenever there are important changes; and (d) participate, on a voluntary basis, in peer reviews on the assessment of risk management capability.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 6 Risk management):
2. The Commission, in cooperation with Member States, may also establish specific consultation mechanisms to enhance appropriate prevention and preparedness planning and coordination among Member States that are prone to similar types of disasters, including for cross-border risks and low probability risks with a high impact identified under point (d) of paragraph 1. 3. The Commission shall further develop, together with the Member States, by 22 December 2019, guidelines on the submission of the summary referred to in point (d) of paragraph 1. In the event that a Member State requests the same type of assistance through the Union Mechanism for the same type of disaster three times within three consecutive years, points (a) and (b) shall apply unless a careful analysis of the reasons for and circumstances of the frequent activations demonstrate that it is not necessary. 5. The Commission, in cooperation with Member States, shall establish and develop Union disaster resilience goals in the area of civil protection, and adopt recommendations to define them as a non-binding common baseline to support prevention and preparedness actions in the event of disasters which cause or are capable of causing multi-country transboundary effects. Those goals shall be based on current and forward-looking scenarios, including the impacts of climate change on disaster risks, data on past events and cross-sectoral impact analysis, with particular attention given to vulnerable groups. When developing Union disaster resilience goals, the Commission shall take into account recurrent disasters that hit Member States and suggest that Member States take specific measures, including any measures to be implemented with the use of Union funds, to strengthen resilience to such disasters.
Article 7 Emergency Response Coordination Centre
The Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is hereby established. The ERCC shall ensure 24/7 operational capacity, and serve the Member States and the Commission in pursuit of the objectives of the Union Mechanism.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 7 Emergency Response Coordination Centre):
1. An Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is hereby established. The ERCC shall ensure 24/7 operational capacity, and serve the Member States and the Commission in pursuit of the objectives of the Union Mechanism. The ERCC shall in particular coordinate, monitor and support in real-time the response to emergencies at Union level. The ERCC shall work in close contact with national civil protection authorities and relevant Union bodies to promote a cross-sectoral approach to disaster management. 2. The ERCC shall have access to operational, analytical, monitoring, information management and communication capabilities to address a broad range of emergencies within and outside the Union.
Article 8 General preparedness actions of the Commission
The Commission shall carry out the following preparedness actions: (a) manage the ERCC; (b) manage a Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS) to enable communication and sharing of information between the ERCC and the Member States' contact points; (c) contribute to the development and better integration of transnational detection and early warning and alert systems of European interest in order to enable a rapid response, and to promote the inter-linkage between national early warning and alert systems and their linkage to the ERCC and the CECIS. Those systems shall take into account and build upon existing and future information, monitoring and detection sources and systems; (d) establish and manage the capability to mobilise and dispatch expert teams, responsible for: (i) assessing the needs that can possibly be addressed under the Union Mechanism in the state requesting assistance, (ii) facilitating, when necessary, the coordination of disaster response assistance on site and liaising with the competent authorities of the state requesting assistance, and (iii) supporting the requesting state with expertise on prevention, preparedness or response actions; (e) establish and maintain the capability to provide logistical support for those expert teams; (f) develop and maintain a network of trained experts of the Member States, who can be available at short notice to assist the ERCC in the monitoring of information and facilitating coordination; (g) facilitate the coordination of the Member States' pre-positioning of disaster response capacities inside the Union; (h) support efforts to improve the inter-operability of modules and other response capacities, taking into account the best practices at the level of the Member States and at international level; (i) take, within its sphere of competence, the necessary actions to facilitate host nation support, including developing and updating, together with Member States, guidelines on host nation support, on the basis of operational experience; (j) support the creation of voluntary peer review assessment programmes for the Member States' preparedness strategies, based on pre-defined criteria, which will enable recommendations to be formulated to strengthen the level of preparedness of the Union; and (k) in close consultation with the Member States, take additional necessary supporting and complementary preparedness action to achieve the objective specified in point (b) of Article 3(1).
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 8 General preparedness actions of the Commission):
2. At the request of a Member State, a third country or the United Nations or its agencies, the Commission may deploy an expert team on site to provide advice on preparedness measures.
Article 9 General preparedness actions of the Member States
1. Member States shall, on a voluntary basis, work towards developing modules, in particular to meet priority intervention or support needs under the Union Mechanism. Member States shall identify, in advance, modules, other response capacities and experts within their competent services, in particular within their civil protection or other emergency services, which could be made available for intervention upon request through the Union Mechanism. They shall take into account that the composition of modules or other response capacities may depend on the type of disaster and on the disaster-related particular needs. 2. Modules shall be made up of the resources of one or more Member States and shall: (a) be able to perform pre-defined tasks in the areas of response in accordance with established international guidelines and therefore be able to: (i) be dispatched at very short notice following a request for assistance through the ERCC; and (ii) work self-sufficiently and autonomously for a given period of time; (b) be interoperable with other modules; (c) undertake training and exercises in order to meet the interoperability requirement; (d) be placed under the authority of a person who is responsible for the operation of modules; and (e) be able to cooperate with other Union bodies and/or international institutions, in particular the United Nations, as appropriate. 3. The Member States shall, on a voluntary basis, identify, in advance, experts that could be dispatched as members of expert teams, as specified in point (d) of Article 8. 4. The Member States shall consider providing, as required, other response capacities, which could be available from the competent services, or which may be provided by non-governmental organisations and other relevant entities. Other response capacities may comprise resources from one or more Member States and, where appropriate, shall: (a) be able to perform tasks in the areas of response in accordance with established international guidelines and therefore be able to: (i) be dispatched at very short notice following a request for assistance through the ERCC; and (ii) work self-sufficiently and autonomously where necessary for a given period of time; (b) be able to cooperate with other Union bodies and/or international institutions, in particular the United Nations, as appropriate. 5. Member States may, subject to appropriate security safeguards, provide information about relevant military capacities that could be used as a last resort as part of the assistance through the Union Mechanism, such as transport and logistical or medical support. 6. Member States shall provide to the Commission relevant information on the experts, modules and other response capacities that they make available for assistance through the Union Mechanism as referred to in paragraphs 1 to 5 and update this information when necessary. 7. Member States shall designate contact points, as referred to in point (b) of Article 8, and inform the Commission accordingly. 8. Member States shall take the appropriate preparedness actions to facilitate host nation support. 9. Member States, supported by the Commission in accordance with Article 23, shall take the appropriate measures to ensure the timely transport of assistance they offer.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The European Union is built on solidarity, a shared value which is strongly felt throughout European society. Solidarity defines the European project and provides the necessary unity to cope with current and future crises by holding a strong moral ground. Solidarity provides a clear compass to guide the European youth in their aspirations for a better Union. In the Rome Declaration, at the occasion of the 60 th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, the leaders of 27 Member States and of the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission reaffirmed their commitment to enhance unity and solidarity in order to increase the strength and resilience of the European Union 1 . The State of the Union address of 14 September 2016 emphasized the need to invest in young people and announced the idea of a European Solidarity Corps to create opportunities for young people across the European Union to make a meaningful contribution to society, show solidarity and to develop their skills, "thus getting not only work but also invaluable human experience". The Bratislava Summit of 16 September 2016 called for reinforced political momentum to support young Europeans and to establish new EU programmes to improve opportunities for them. The Commission Communication “A European Solidarity Corps” of 7 December 2016 2 launched the first phase of the European Solidarity Corps and reiterated the target of 100 000 young Europeans taking part in the European Solidarity Corps by 2020. During this initial phase, eight different EU programmes 3 have been mobilised to offer volunteering, traineeship or job opportunities to young people across the EU. This proposal also responds to the call by the European Council in its Conclusions of 15 December 2016 to take work on the European Solidarity Corps forward 4 , and it is one of the priority initiatives included in the Joint Declaration on the EU's legislative priorities for 2017 5 , whereby the P residents of the Parliament, Council and Commission committed to streamlining the efforts of their Institutions to ensure swift legislative progress on priority initiatives with a view to delivery before the end of 2017. This proposal provides the legal framework for the European Solidarity Corps to offer opportunities for young people to engage in solidarity activities, which will contribute to addressing unmet societal needs, while enhancing young people’s personal, educational, social, civic and professional development. In shaping this proposal, the Commission has taken into account the evidence and findings gathered through the ex-ante evaluation that accompanies it, as well as the views and suggestions collected through an extensive open consultation process, as further described in the relevant sections below. This preparatory work helped identify the following gaps that this proposal aims to address. There are many young people who want to engage in solidarity activities and, at the same time, there are many unmet needs in communities that could be better addressed thanks to the involvement of young people in solidarity activities. There is an untapped demand by many organisations for motivated young people to support them in their efforts; if supported, these organisations could offer even more to communities. There are however shortcomings in the matching of supply and demand and obstacles related to the availability of resources, to ensuring quality, as well as various legal aspects. The main challenges in this field can be summarised as follows: – in recent decades, our society has insufficiently invested in empowering young Europeans to effectively engage in solidarity activities, either as volunteers or through occupational activities. Following the global financial and economic crisis the EU economy is now back on a more stable footing, but the recovery is still unevenly distributed across society and regions and the challenge is particularly acute for the younger generation. Solidarity activities have the concrete potential to mobilise young people for positive causes and help them develop the knowledge, skills and competences which will be essential for their personal, socio-educational, professional and civic development. This is true for all young people, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Encouraging the involvement of those young people in solidarity activities is a specific issue that also needs to be considered in this context; – addressing solidarity and building social, economic and civic cohesion requires a rich tissue of dynamic organisations (private and public, profit and non-profit). In this context, there is a need to cater better for the needs of such organisations, especially those working at the grass-root level with the most disadvantaged communities. Organisations creating and offering solidarity placements need support, in terms of resources, ensuring appropriate training and preparation for volunteers, trainees or workers as well as to be active in a European context. Organisations also need clear and simple rules; – the landscape of solidarity opportunities – be it in an occupational or volunteering perspective – is quite fragmented across the EU. Where opportunities exist, there is often a lack of awareness. The fragmentation also leads to shortcomings when it comes to understanding, documenting and validating what young people learnt from engaging in a particular solidarity action. In the absence of measures to bring organisations and young people together around solidarity, there is a risk that an important potential for solidarity activities goes untapped, resulting in unnecessary welfare loss to organisations, young people and society as a whole. Against this background, the European Solidarity Corps aims at enhancing the engagement of young people and organisations in solidarity activities which are of high quality and accessible to all young people, as a means to contribute to strengthening cohesion and solidarity in Europe, supporting communities and responding to unmet societal needs. In order to reach this general objective, the European Solidarity Corps will provide young people with easily accessible opportunities to engage in volunteering, traineeships or jobs in solidarity-related sectors, as well as to devise and develop solidarity projects at their own initiative, which shall also contribute to improving their skills and competences for their personal, social and professional development, as well as their employability. T he European Solidarity Corps will also support networking activities for European Solidarity Corps participants and organisations, aimed at fostering a European Solidarity Corps spirit and sense of belonging to a wider community committed to solidarity, as well as at encouraging the exchange of useful practices and experience. The European Solidarity Corps will further aim at ensuring that the solidarity activities offered to the young participants 6 contribute to addressing concrete societal challenges and to strengthening communities, that they are of high quality and that the learning outcomes resulting from young people’s participation in those activities are properly validated.
Revised version (Article 9 General preparedness actions of the Member States):
1. Member States shall, on a voluntary basis, work towards developing modules, in particular to meet priority intervention or support needs under the Union Mechanism. Member States shall identify, in advance, modules, other response capacities and experts within their competent services, in particular within their civil protection or other emergency services, which could be made available for intervention upon request through the Union Mechanism. They shall take into account that the composition of modules or other response capacities may depend on the type of disaster and on the disaster-related particular needs. 2. Modules shall be made up of the resources of one or more Member States and shall: (a) be able to perform pre-defined tasks in the areas of response in accordance with established international guidelines and therefore be able to: (i) be dispatched at very short notice following a request for assistance through the ERCC; and (ii) work self-sufficiently and autonomously for a given period of time; (b) be interoperable with other modules; (c) undertake training and exercises in order to meet the interoperability requirement; (d) be placed under the authority of a person who is responsible for the operation of modules; and (e) be able to cooperate with other Union bodies and/or international institutions, in particular the United Nations, as appropriate. 3. The Member States shall, on a voluntary basis, identify, in advance, experts that could be dispatched as members of expert teams, as specified in point (d) of Article 8. 4. The Member States shall consider providing, as required, other response capacities, which could be available from the competent services, or which may be provided by non-governmental organisations and other relevant entities. Other response capacities may comprise resources from one or more Member States and, where appropriate, shall: (a) be able to perform tasks in the areas of response in accordance with established international guidelines and therefore be able to: (ii) work self-sufficiently and autonomously where necessary for a given period of time; 5. Member States may, subject to appropriate security safeguards, provide information about relevant military capacities that could be used as a last resort as part of the assistance through the Union Mechanism, such as transport and logistical or medical support. 6. Member States shall provide to the Commission relevant information on the experts, modules and other response capacities that they make available for assistance through the Union Mechanism as referred to in paragraphs 1 to 5 and update this information when necessary. 7. Member States shall designate contact points, as referred to in point (b) of Article 8, and inform the Commission accordingly. 8. Member States shall take the appropriate preparedness actions to facilitate host nation support. 9. Member States, supported by the Commission in accordance with Article 23, shall take the appropriate measures to ensure the timely transport of assistance they offer.
Article 10 Planning of operations
1. The Commission and Member States shall work together to improve the planning of disaster response operations under the Union Mechanism, including through scenario-building for disaster response, asset mapping and the development of plans for the deployment of response capacities. 2. The Commission and the Member States shall identify and promote synergies between civil protection assistance and humanitarian aid funding provided by the Union and Member States in the planning of response operations for humanitarian crises outside the Union.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 10 Scenario-building and disaster management planning):
2. The Commission and the Member States shall identify and promote synergies between civil protection assistance and humanitarian aid funding provided by the Union and Member States in the planning of response operations for humanitarian crises outside the Union.
Article 11 European Emergency Response Capacity
1. A European Emergency Response Capacity (EERC) shall be established. It shall consist of a voluntary pool of pre-committed response capacities of the Member States and include modules, other response capacities and experts. 2. On the basis of identified risks, the Commission shall define the types and the number of key response capacities required for the EERC ("capacity goals"). 3. The Commission shall define quality requirements for the response capacities that Member States commit to the EERC. The quality requirements shall be based on established international standards, where such standards already exist. The Member States shall be responsible for ensuring the quality of their response capacities. 4. The Commission shall establish and manage a process for certification and registration of the response capacities that the Member States make available to the EERC. 5. Member States shall on a voluntary basis identify and register the response capacities which they commit to the EERC. The registration of multinational modules provided by two or more Member States shall be undertaken jointly by all the Member States concerned. 6. The response capacities that Member States make available for the EERC shall remain available for national purposes at all times. 7. Response capacities that Member States make available for the EERC shall be available for response operations under the Union Mechanism following a request for assistance through the ERCC. The ultimate decision on their deployment shall be taken by the Member States which registered the response capacity concerned. When domestic emergencies, force majeure or, in exceptional cases, serious reasons prevent a Member State from making those response capacities available in a specific disaster, that Member State shall inform the Commission as soon as possible by referring to this Article. 8. In the event of deployment, Member States' response capacities shall remain under their command and control and can be withdrawn when domestic emergencies, force majeure or, in exceptional cases, serious reasons prevent a Member State from keeping those response capacities available, in consultation with the Commission. The coordination among the different response capacities shall be facilitated where appropriate by the Commission through the ERCC in accordance with Articles 15 and 16. 9. Member States and the Commission shall ensure an appropriate public awareness of the interventions involving the EERC.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 11 European Civil Protection Pool):
1. A European Civil Protection Pool shall be established. It shall consist of a pool of voluntarily pre-committed response capacities of the Member States and include modules, other response capacities and categories of experts. 1a. The assistance provided by a Member State through the European Civil Protection Pool shall be complementary to existing capacities in the requesting Member State, without prejudice to the primary responsibility of Member States for disaster prevention and response on their territory. 2. On the basis of identified risks, overall capacities and gaps and any existing scenario-building as referred to in Article 10(1), the Commission shall, by means of implementing acts, define the types and specify the number of key response capacities required for the European Civil Protection Pool (‘capacity goals’). Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 33(2). The Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, shall monitor progress towards the capacity goals set out in the implementing acts referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph, and identify potentially significant response capacity gaps in the European Civil Protection Pool. Where such gaps have been identified, the Commission shall examine whether the necessary capacities are available to the Member States outside the European Civil Protection Pool. The Commission shall encourage Member States to address significant response capacity gaps in the European Civil Protection Pool. It may support Member States in this regard in accordance with Article 20 and point (i) of Article 21(1) and Article 21(2). 3. The Commission shall define quality requirements for the response capacities that Member States commit to the European Civil Protection Pool . The quality requirements shall be based on established international standards, where such standards already exist. The Member States shall be responsible for ensuring the quality of their response capacities. 4. The Commission shall establish and manage a process for certification and registration of the response capacities that the Member States make available to the European Civil Protection Pool . 5. Member States shall on a voluntary basis identify and register the response capacities which they commit to the European Civil Protection Pool . The registration of multinational modules provided by two or more Member States shall be undertaken jointly by all the Member States concerned. 6. The response capacities that Member States make available for the European Civil Protection Pool shall remain available for national purposes at all times. 7. Response capacities that Member States make available for the European Civil Protection Pool shall be available for response operations under the Union Mechanism following a request for assistance through the ERCC. The ultimate decision on their deployment shall be taken by the Member States which registered the response capacity concerned. When domestic emergencies, force majeure or, in exceptional cases, serious reasons prevent a Member State from making those response capacities available in a specific disaster, that Member State shall inform the Commission as soon as possible by referring to this Article. 8. In the event of deployment, Member States' response capacities shall remain under their command and control and can be withdrawn when domestic emergencies, force majeure or, in exceptional cases, serious reasons prevent a Member State from keeping those response capacities available, in consultation with the Commission. The coordination among the different response capacities shall be facilitated where appropriate by the Commission through the ERCC in accordance with Articles 15 and 16. 9. Member States and the Commission shall ensure an appropriate public awareness of the interventions involving the European Civil Protection Pool .
Article 12 Addressing response capacity gaps
1. The Commission shall monitor progress towards the capacity goals set in accordance with Article 11(2) and identify potentially significant response capacity gaps in the EERC. 2. Where potentially significant gaps have been identified, the Commission shall examine whether the necessary capacities are available to the Member States outside the EERC. 3. The Commission shall encourage Member States to address, either individually or through a consortium of Member States cooperating together on common risks, any strategic capacity gaps that have been identified in accordance with paragraph 2. The Commission may support Member States in those activities in accordance with Article 20, points (i) and (j) of Article 21(1) and Article 21(2). 4. The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council every two years on the progress made on the achievement of capacity goals and remaining gaps in the EERC.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Article 13 Training, exercises, lessons learnt and knowledge dissemination
1. The Commission shall within the Union Mechanism carry out the following tasks in the field of training, exercises, lessons learnt and knowledge dissemination: (a) set up and manage a training programme for civil protection and emergency management personnel on prevention of, preparedness for and response to disasters. The programme shall include joint courses and a system for exchange of experts, whereby individuals may be seconded to other Member States. The training programme shall aim to enhance the coordination, compatibility and complementarity between capacities referred to in Articles 9 and 11, and to improve the competence of experts referred to in points (d) and (f) of Article 8; (b) set up and manage a training network open to training centres for civil protection and emergency management personnel as well as other relevant actors and institutions on prevention of, preparedness for and response to disasters. The training network shall aim to: (i) enhance all phases of disaster management, taking into account adaptation to and mitigation of climate change; (ii) create synergies among its members through exchange of experience and best practices, relevant research, lessons learnt, courses and workshops, exercises and pilot projects; and (iii) develop guidance on Union and international civil protection training, including training on prevention of, preparedness for and response to disasters; (c) develop a strategic framework setting out the objectives and the role of exercises, a long-term comprehensive plan outlining exercise priorities, as well as set up and manage a programme of exercises; (d) set up and manage a programme of lessons learnt from civil protection actions conducted within the framework of the Union Mechanism including aspects from the entire disaster management cycle, in order to provide a broad basis for learning processes and knowledge development. The programme shall include: (i) monitoring, analysing and evaluating all the relevant civil protection actions within the Union Mechanism; (ii) promoting implementation of lessons learnt in order to obtain an experience-based foundation for the development of activities within the disaster management cycle; and (iii) developing methods and tools for gathering, analysing, promoting and implementing lessons learnt. That programme shall also include, where appropriate, lessons learnt from interventions outside the Union with regard to exploiting links and synergies between assistance provided under the Union Mechanism and humanitarian response; (e) develop guidance on knowledge dissemination and implementation of the different tasks referred to in points (a) to (d) at Member State level; and (f) stimulate and encourage the introduction and use of relevant new technologies for the purpose of the Union Mechanism. 2. When carrying out the tasks set out in paragraph 1, the Commission shall take particular account of the need and interest of Member States facing disaster risks of a similar nature. 3. At the request of a Member State, a third country or the United Nations or its agencies, the Commission may deploy an expert team on site to provide advice on preparedness measures.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 13 Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network):
1. The Commission shall establish a Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network (the ‘Network’) to aggregate, process and disseminate knowledge and information relevant to the Union Mechanism, based on a multi-hazard approach and including relevant civil protection and disaster management actors, centres of excellence, universities and researchers. The Commission, through the Network, shall take due account of the expertise available in the Member States, at Union level, at the level of other international organisations and entities, at the level of third countries and at the level of organisations active on the ground. The Commission and the Member States shall promote gender-balanced participation in the establishment and the functioning of the Network. The Commission, through the Network, shall support coherence of planning and decision-making processes by facilitating the continuous exchange of knowledge and information involving all areas of activity under the Union Mechanism. To that end, the Commission, through the Network, shall inter alia: (a) set up and manage a training and exercises programme for civil protection and disaster management personnel on prevention of, preparedness for and response to disasters. The programme shall focus on and encourage the exchange of best practices in the field of civil protection and disaster management, including in relation to disasters originating from climate change, and include joint courses and a system for the exchange of expertise in the area of disaster management, including exchanges of professionals and experienced volunteers, and the secondment of Member State experts. (c) stimulate research and innovation, and encourage the introduction and use of relevant new approaches or technologies or both for the purpose of the Union Mechanism; (d) set up and maintain an online platform serving the Network to support and facilitate the implementation of the different tasks referred to in points (a), (b) and (c). 2. When carrying out the tasks set out in paragraph 1, the Commission shall take particular account of the needs and interests of Member States facing disaster risks of a similar nature, as well as of the need to strengthen the protection of biodiversity and cultural heritage. 3. The Commission shall strengthen cooperation on training, and promote the sharing of knowledge and experience, between the Network and international organisations and third countries, in particular in order to contribute to meeting international commitments, particularly those in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Article 14 Notification of disasters within the Union
1. In the event of a disaster within the Union, or of an imminent disaster, which causes or is capable of causing trans-boundary effects or affects or is capable of affecting other Member States, the Member State in which the disaster occurs or is likely to occur shall, without delay, notify the potentially affected Member States and, where the effects are potentially significant, the Commission. The first subparagraph shall not apply where the obligation of notification has already been addressed under other Union legislation, under the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community or under existing international agreements. 2. In the event of a disaster within the Union, or of an imminent disaster, which is likely to result in a call for assistance from one or more Member States, the Member State in which the disaster occurs or is likely to occur shall, without delay, notify the Commission that a possible request for assistance through the ERCC can be expected, in order to enable the Commission, as appropriate, to inform the other Member States and to activate its competent services. 3. The notifications referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall, as appropriate, be made through CECIS.
Article 15 Responding to disasters within the Union
1. When a disaster occurs within the Union, or is imminent, the affected Member State may request assistance through the ERCC. The request shall be as specific as possible. 2. In exceptional situations of increased risk a Member State may also request assistance in the form of temporary pre-positioning of response capacities. 3. Upon receiving a request for assistance, the Commission shall, as appropriate and without delay: (a) forward the request to the contact points of other Member States; (b) collect validated information on the situation, in conjunction with the affected Member State, and disseminate it to the Member States; (c) make recommendations, in consultation with the requesting Member State, for the provision of assistance through the Union Mechanism, based on the needs on the ground and any relevant pre-developed plans, as referred to in Article 10(1), invite Member States to deploy specific capacities and facilitate the coordination of the required assistance; and (d) take additional action to facilitate the coordination of the response. 4. Any Member State to which a request for assistance is addressed through the Union Mechanism shall promptly determine whether it is in a position to render the assistance required and inform the requesting Member State of its decision through the CECIS, indicating the scope, terms and, where applicable, costs of the assistance it could render. The ERCC shall keep the Member States informed. 5. The requesting Member State shall be responsible for directing assistance interventions. The authorities of the requesting Member State shall lay down guidelines and, if necessary, define the limits of the tasks entrusted to the modules or other response capacities. The details of the execution of those tasks shall be left to the person in charge appointed by the Member State rendering assistance. The requesting Member State may also request the deployment of an expert team to support its assessment, facilitate coordination on site between Member States' teams or provide technical advice. 6. The requesting Member State shall take the appropriate actions to facilitate host nation support for the incoming assistance. 7. The role of the Commission referred to in this Article shall not affect the Member States’ competences and responsibility for their teams, modules and other support capacities, including military capacities. In particular, the support offered by the Commission shall not entail command and control over the Member States’ teams, modules and other support, which shall be deployed on a voluntary basis in accordance with the coordination at headquarters level and on site.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 15 Responding to disasters within the Union):
1. When a disaster occurs within the Union, or is imminent, the affected Member State may request assistance through the ERCC. The request shall be as specific as possible. A request for assistance shall lapse after a maximum period of 90 days, unless new elements justifying the need for continued or additional assistance are provided to the ERCC. 2. In exceptional situations of increased risk a Member State may also request assistance in the form of temporary pre-positioning of response capacities. 4. Any Member State to which a request for assistance is addressed through the Union Mechanism shall promptly determine whether it is in a position to render the assistance required and inform the requesting Member State of its decision through the CECIS, indicating the scope, terms and, where applicable, costs of the assistance it could render. The ERCC shall keep the Member States informed. 5. The requesting Member State shall be responsible for directing assistance interventions. The authorities of the requesting Member State shall lay down guidelines and, if necessary, define the limits of the tasks entrusted to the modules or other response capacities. The details of the execution of those tasks shall be left to the person in charge appointed by the Member State rendering assistance. The requesting Member State may also request the deployment of an expert team to support its assessment, facilitate coordination on site between Member States' teams or provide technical advice. 6. The requesting Member State shall take the appropriate actions to facilitate host nation support for the incoming assistance. 7. The role of the Commission referred to in this Article shall not affect the Member States’ competences and responsibility for their teams, modules and other support capacities, including military capacities. In particular, the support offered by the Commission shall not entail command and control over the Member States’ teams, modules and other support, which shall be deployed on a voluntary basis in accordance with the coordination at headquarters level and on site.
Article 16 Promoting consistency in the response to disasters outside the Union
1. When a disaster occurs outside the Union, or is imminent, the affected country may request assistance through the ERCC. The assistance may also be requested through or by the United Nations and its agencies, or a relevant international organisation. 2. Interventions under this Article may be conducted either as an autonomous assistance intervention or as a contribution to an intervention led by an international organisation. The Union coordination shall be fully integrated with the overall coordination provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and shall respect its leading role. 3. The Commission shall support the consistency in the delivery of the assistance through the following actions: (a) maintaining a dialogue with the Member States’ contact points in order to ensure an effective and coherent Union disaster response contribution through the Union Mechanism to the overall relief effort, in particular by: (i) informing Member States without delay of the full requests for assistance; (ii) supporting a common assessment of the situation and needs, providing technical advice and/or facilitating the coordination on site of assistance through the presence of a civil protection expert team on site; (iii) sharing relevant assessments and analyses with all relevant actors; (iv) providing an overview of assistance being offered by Member States and other actors; (v) advising on the type of assistance required in order to ensure that the assistance provided is consistent with the needs assessments; and (vi) assisting in overcoming any practical difficulties in the delivery of assistance in areas such as transit and customs; (b) immediately making recommendations, when possible in cooperation with the affected country, based on the needs on the ground and any relevant pre-developed plans, inviting Member States to deploy specific capacities and facilitating the coordination of the requested assistance; (c) liaising with the affected country on technical details, such as the precise needs for assistance, the acceptance of offers and the practical arrangements for the local reception and distribution of assistance; (d) liaising with or supporting OCHA, and cooperating with other relevant actors that contribute to the overall relief effort, in order to maximise synergies, seek complementarities and avoid duplication and gaps; and (e) liaising with all relevant actors, in particular in the closing phase of the assistance intervention under the Union Mechanism, to facilitate a smooth handover. 4. Without prejudice to the Commission's role, as defined in paragraph 3, and respecting the imperative for an immediate operational response through the Union Mechanism, the Commission shall upon activation of the Union Mechanism inform the European External Action Service to allow for consistency between the civil protection operation and the overall Union relations with the affected country. The Commission shall keep the Member States fully informed in accordance with paragraph 3. 5. On site, liaison shall be ensured as appropriate with the Union delegation for the latter to facilitate contacts with the government of the affected country. Where necessary, the Union delegation shall provide logistical support to the civil protection expert teams referred to in point (ii) of point (a) of paragraph 3. 6. Any Member State to which a request for assistance is addressed through the Union Mechanism shall promptly determine whether it is in a position to render the assistance required and inform the ERCC of its decision through the CECIS, indicating the scope and terms of any assistance it could render. The ERCC shall keep Member States informed. 7. The Union Mechanism may also be used to provide civil protection support to consular assistance to the citizens of the Union in disasters in third countries if requested by the consular authorities of the Member States concerned. 8. Pursuant to a request for assistance, the Commission may take additional necessary supporting and complementary action in order to ensure consistency in the delivery of the assistance. 9. Coordination through the Union Mechanism shall affect neither bilateral contacts between Member States and the affected country, nor cooperation between Member States and the United Nations and other relevant international organisations. Such bilateral contacts may also be used to contribute to the coordination through the Union Mechanism. 10. The role of the Commission referred to in this Article shall not affect the Member States’ competences and responsibility for their teams, modules and other support, including military capacities. In particular, the support offered by the Commission shall not entail command and control over Member States’ teams, modules and other support, which shall be deployed on a voluntary basis in accordance with the coordination at headquarters level and on site. 11. Synergies shall be sought with other instruments of the Union, in particular with actions financed under Regulation (EC) No 1257/96. The Commission shall ensure coordination between the instruments and, where appropriate, ensure that Member States' civil protection actions contributing to a wider humanitarian response are as far as possible financed under this Decision. 12. Whenever the Union Mechanism is activated, the Member States providing disaster assistance shall keep the ERCC fully informed of their activities. 13. Member States’ teams and modules participating on site in the intervention through the Union Mechanism shall liaise closely with the ERCC and the expert teams on site, as referred to in point (ii) of point (a) of paragraph 3.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 16 Promoting consistency in the response to disasters outside the Union):
1. When a disaster occurs outside the Union, or is imminent, the affected country may request assistance through the ERCC. The assistance may also be requested through or by the United Nations and its agencies, or a relevant international organisation. A request for assistance shall lapse after a maximum period of 90 days, unless new elements justifying the need for continued or additional assistance are provided to the ERCC. 2. Interventions under this Article may be conducted either as an autonomous assistance intervention or as a contribution to an intervention led by an international organisation. The Union coordination shall be fully integrated with the overall coordination provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and shall respect its leading role. In the case of man-made disasters or complex emergencies, the Commission shall ensure consistency with the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid ( 4 ), and respect for humanitarian principles. 4. Without prejudice to the Commission's role, as defined in paragraph 3, and respecting the imperative for an immediate operational response through the Union Mechanism, the Commission shall upon activation of the Union Mechanism inform the European External Action Service to allow for consistency between the civil protection operation and the overall Union relations with the affected country. The Commission shall keep the Member States fully informed in accordance with paragraph 3. 5. On site, liaison shall be ensured as appropriate with the Union delegation for the latter to facilitate contacts with the government of the affected country. Where necessary, the Union delegation shall provide logistical support to the civil protection expert teams referred to in point (ii) of point (a) of paragraph 3. 6. Any Member State to which a request for assistance is addressed through the Union Mechanism shall promptly determine whether it is in a position to render the assistance required and inform the ERCC of its decision through the CECIS, indicating the scope and terms of any assistance it could render. The ERCC shall keep Member States informed. 7. The Union Mechanism may also be used to provide civil protection support to consular assistance to the citizens of the Union in disasters in third countries if requested by the consular authorities of the Member States concerned. 8. Pursuant to a request for assistance, the Commission may take additional necessary supporting and complementary action in order to ensure consistency in the delivery of the assistance. 9. Coordination through the Union Mechanism shall affect neither bilateral contacts between Member States and the affected country, nor cooperation between Member States and the United Nations and other relevant international organisations. Such bilateral contacts may also be used to contribute to the coordination through the Union Mechanism. 10. The role of the Commission referred to in this Article shall not affect the Member States’ competences and responsibility for their teams, modules and other support, including military capacities. In particular, the support offered by the Commission shall not entail command and control over Member States’ teams, modules and other support, which shall be deployed on a voluntary basis in accordance with the coordination at headquarters level and on site. 11. Synergies shall be sought with other instruments of the Union, in particular with actions financed under Regulation (EC) No 1257/96. The Commission shall ensure coordination between the instruments and, where appropriate, ensure that Member States' civil protection actions contributing to a wider humanitarian response are as far as possible financed under this Decision. 12. Whenever the Union Mechanism is activated, the Member States providing disaster assistance shall keep the ERCC fully informed of their activities. 13. Member States’ teams and modules participating on site in the intervention through the Union Mechanism shall liaise closely with the ERCC and the expert teams on site, as referred to in point (ii) of point (a) of paragraph 3.
Article 17 Support on site
1. The Commission may select, appoint and dispatch an expert team composed of experts provided by Member States: (a) in the event of a disaster outside the Union as referred to in Article 16(3); (b) in the event of a disaster within the Union as referred to in Article 15(5); (c) upon request for prevention expertise in accordance with Article 5(2); or (d) upon request for preparedness expertise in accordance with Article 13(3). Experts from the Commission and from other services of the Union may be integrated in the team in order to support the team and facilitate liaison with the ERCC. Experts dispatched by OCHA or other international organisations may be integrated in the team in order to strengthen cooperation and facilitate joint assessments. 2. The procedure for the selection and appointment of experts shall be the following: (a) Member States shall nominate experts, under their responsibility, who can be deployed as members of expert teams; (b) the Commission shall select the experts and the leader for those teams on the basis of their qualifications and experience, including the level of the Union Mechanism training undertaken, previous experience of missions under the Union Mechanism and other international relief work. The selection shall also be based on other criteria, including language skills, so as to ensure that the team as a whole has the available skills needed in the specific situation; and (c) the Commission shall appoint experts/team leaders for the mission in agreement with their nominating Member State. 3. Where expert teams are dispatched, they shall facilitate coordination between Member States' intervention teams and liaise with the competent authorities of the requesting state as set out in Article 8(d). The ERCC shall maintain close contact with the expert teams and provide them with guidance and logistical support.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 17 Support on site):
1. Experts from the Commission and from other services of the Union may be integrated in the team in order to support the team and facilitate liaison with the ERCC. Experts dispatched by UN agencies or other international organisations may be integrated in the team in order to strengthen cooperation and facilitate joint assessments. Where operational effectiveness so requires, the Commission, in close cooperation with Member States, may facilitate the involvement of additional experts, through their deployment, and technical and scientific support, and reach back to specialist scientific, emergency medical and sectoral expertise. The Commission shall notify Member States of additional expert support provided in accordance with paragraph 1. 3. Where expert teams are dispatched, they shall facilitate coordination between Member States' intervention teams and liaise with the competent authorities of the requesting state as set out in Article 8(d). The ERCC shall maintain close contact with the expert teams and provide them with guidance and logistical support.
Article 18 Transport and equipment
1. In the event of a disaster, either within or outside the Union, the Commission may support Member States in obtaining access to equipment or transport resources by: (a) providing and sharing information on equipment and transport resources that can be made available by Member States, with a view to facilitating the pooling of such equipment or transport resources; (b) assisting Member States to identify, and facilitating their access to, transport resources that may be available from other sources, including the commercial market; or (c) assisting Member States to identify equipment that may be available from other sources, including the commercial market. 2. The Commission may complement the transport resources provided by Member States by providing additional transport resources necessary for ensuring a rapid response to disasters.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 18 Transport and equipment):
2. The Commission may complement the transport and logistical resources provided by Member States by providing additional resources necessary for ensuring a rapid response to disasters. 3. The assistance requested by a Member State or a third country may consist only of transport and logistical resources in order to respond to disasters with relief items or equipment procured in a third country by the requesting Member State or third country.
Article 19 Budgetary resources
1. The financial envelope for the implementation of the Union Mechanism for the period 2014 to 2020 shall be EUR 368 428 000 in current prices. EUR 223 776 000 in current prices shall derive from Heading 3 "Security and Citizenship" of the multiannual financial framework and EUR 144 652 000 in current prices from Heading 4 "Global Europe". The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the European Parliament and the Council within the limits of the multiannual financial framework. 2. Appropriations resulting from reimbursement made by the beneficiaries for disaster response actions shall constitute assigned revenue within the meaning of Article 18(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012. 3. The financial allocation referred to in paragraph 1 may also cover expenses pertaining to preparatory, monitoring, control, audit and evaluation activities, which are required for the management of the Union Mechanism and the achievement of its objectives. Such expenditure may, in particular, cover studies, meetings of experts, information and communication actions, including corporate communication of the political priorities of the Union, as far as they are related to the general objectives of the Union Mechanism, expenses linked to IT networks focusing on information processing and exchange, including their interconnection with existing or future systems designed to promote cross-sectoral data exchange and related equipment, together with all other technical and administrative assistance expenses incurred by the Commission for the management of the programme. 4. The financial envelope referred to in paragraph 1 shall be allocated, over the period 2014-2020, according to the percentages and principles set out in Annex I. 5. The Commission shall review the breakdown set out in Annex I in the light of the outcome of the interim evaluation referred to in point (a) of Article 34(2). The Commission shall be empowered to adopt, where necessary in light of the results of that evaluation, delegated acts in accordance with Article 30, to adjust each of the figures in Annex I by more than 8 percentage points and up to 16 percentage points. Those delegated acts shall be adopted by 30 June 2017. 6. Where, in case of a necessary revision of the budgetary resources available for response actions, imperative grounds of urgency so require, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts to adjust each of the figures in Annex I by more than 8 percentage points and up to 16 percentage points, within the available budgetary allocations and in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 31.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The European Union is built on solidarity, a shared value which is strongly felt throughout European society. Solidarity defines the European project and provides the necessary unity to cope with current and future crises by holding a strong moral ground. Solidarity provides a clear compass to guide the European youth in their aspirations for a better Union. In the Rome Declaration, at the occasion of the 60 th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, the leaders of 27 Member States and of the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission reaffirmed their commitment to enhance unity and solidarity in order to increase the strength and resilience of the European Union 1 . The State of the Union address of 14 September 2016 emphasized the need to invest in young people and announced the idea of a European Solidarity Corps to create opportunities for young people across the European Union to make a meaningful contribution to society, show solidarity and to develop their skills, "thus getting not only work but also invaluable human experience". The Bratislava Summit of 16 September 2016 called for reinforced political momentum to support young Europeans and to establish new EU programmes to improve opportunities for them. The Commission Communication “A European Solidarity Corps” of 7 December 2016 2 launched the first phase of the European Solidarity Corps and reiterated the target of 100 000 young Europeans taking part in the European Solidarity Corps by 2020. During this initial phase, eight different EU programmes 3 have been mobilised to offer volunteering, traineeship or job opportunities to young people across the EU. This proposal also responds to the call by the European Council in its Conclusions of 15 December 2016 to take work on the European Solidarity Corps forward 4 , and it is one of the priority initiatives included in the Joint Declaration on the EU's legislative priorities for 2017 5 , whereby the P residents of the Parliament, Council and Commission committed to streamlining the efforts of their Institutions to ensure swift legislative progress on priority initiatives with a view to delivery before the end of 2017. This proposal provides the legal framework for the European Solidarity Corps to offer opportunities for young people to engage in solidarity activities, which will contribute to addressing unmet societal needs, while enhancing young people’s personal, educational, social, civic and professional development. In shaping this proposal, the Commission has taken into account the evidence and findings gathered through the ex-ante evaluation that accompanies it, as well as the views and suggestions collected through an extensive open consultation process, as further described in the relevant sections below. This preparatory work helped identify the following gaps that this proposal aims to address. There are many young people who want to engage in solidarity activities and, at the same time, there are many unmet needs in communities that could be better addressed thanks to the involvement of young people in solidarity activities. There is an untapped demand by many organisations for motivated young people to support them in their efforts; if supported, these organisations could offer even more to communities. There are however shortcomings in the matching of supply and demand and obstacles related to the availability of resources, to ensuring quality, as well as various legal aspects. The main challenges in this field can be summarised as follows: – in recent decades, our society has insufficiently invested in empowering young Europeans to effectively engage in solidarity activities, either as volunteers or through occupational activities. Following the global financial and economic crisis the EU economy is now back on a more stable footing, but the recovery is still unevenly distributed across society and regions and the challenge is particularly acute for the younger generation. Solidarity activities have the concrete potential to mobilise young people for positive causes and help them develop the knowledge, skills and competences which will be essential for their personal, socio-educational, professional and civic development. This is true for all young people, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Encouraging the involvement of those young people in solidarity activities is a specific issue that also needs to be considered in this context; – addressing solidarity and building social, economic and civic cohesion requires a rich tissue of dynamic organisations (private and public, profit and non-profit). In this context, there is a need to cater better for the needs of such organisations, especially those working at the grass-root level with the most disadvantaged communities. Organisations creating and offering solidarity placements need support, in terms of resources, ensuring appropriate training and preparation for volunteers, trainees or workers as well as to be active in a European context. Organisations also need clear and simple rules; – the landscape of solidarity opportunities – be it in an occupational or volunteering perspective – is quite fragmented across the EU. Where opportunities exist, there is often a lack of awareness. The fragmentation also leads to shortcomings when it comes to understanding, documenting and validating what young people learnt from engaging in a particular solidarity action. In the absence of measures to bring organisations and young people together around solidarity, there is a risk that an important potential for solidarity activities goes untapped, resulting in unnecessary welfare loss to organisations, young people and society as a whole. Against this background, the European Solidarity Corps aims at enhancing the engagement of young people and organisations in solidarity activities which are of high quality and accessible to all young people, as a means to contribute to strengthening cohesion and solidarity in Europe, supporting communities and responding to unmet societal needs. In order to reach this general objective, the European Solidarity Corps will provide young people with easily accessible opportunities to engage in volunteering, traineeships or jobs in solidarity-related sectors, as well as to devise and develop solidarity projects at their own initiative, which shall also contribute to improving their skills and competences for their personal, social and professional development, as well as their employability. T he European Solidarity Corps will also support networking activities for European Solidarity Corps participants and organisations, aimed at fostering a European Solidarity Corps spirit and sense of belonging to a wider community committed to solidarity, as well as at encouraging the exchange of useful practices and experience. The European Solidarity Corps will further aim at ensuring that the solidarity activities offered to the young participants 6 contribute to addressing concrete societal challenges and to strengthening communities, that they are of high quality and that the learning outcomes resulting from young people’s participation in those activities are properly validated.
Revised version (Article 19 Budgetary resources):
1. The financial envelope for the implementation of the Union Mechanism for the period 2014 to 2020 shall be EUR 368 428 000 in current prices. EUR 223 776 000 in current prices shall derive from Heading 3 "Security and Citizenship" of the multiannual financial framework and EUR 144 652 000 in current prices from Heading 4 "Global Europe". The financial envelope derived from Heading 3 "Security and Citizenship" may finance actions implemented by the European Solidarity Corps in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1475 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 2 ), which contribute to one or more of the Union priorities in the area of civil protection. Those actions shall be implemented solely in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1475, to the exclusion of the specific requirements of this Decision. The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the European Parliament and the Council within the limits of the multiannual financial framework. 2. Appropriations resulting from reimbursement made by the beneficiaries for disaster response actions shall constitute assigned revenue within the meaning of Article 18(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012. 3. The financial allocation referred to in paragraph 1 may also cover expenses pertaining to preparatory, monitoring, control, audit and evaluation activities, which are required for the management of the Union Mechanism and the achievement of its objectives. Such expenditure may, in particular, cover studies, meetings of experts, information and communication actions, including corporate communication of the political priorities of the Union, as far as they are related to the general objectives of the Union Mechanism, expenses linked to IT networks focusing on information processing and exchange, including their interconnection with existing or future systems designed to promote cross-sectoral data exchange and related equipment, together with all other technical and administrative assistance expenses incurred by the Commission for the management of the programme. 4. The financial envelope referred to in paragraph 1 shall be allocated, over the period 2014-2020, according to the percentages and principles set out in Annex I. 5. The Commission shall review the breakdown set out in Annex I in the light of the outcome of the interim evaluation referred to in point (a) of Article 34(2). The Commission shall be empowered to adopt, where necessary in light of the results of that evaluation, delegated acts in accordance with Article 30, to adjust each of the figures in Annex I by more than 8 percentage points and up to 16 percentage points. Those delegated acts shall be adopted by 30 June 2017. 6. Where, in case of a necessary revision of the budgetary resources available for response actions, imperative grounds of urgency so require, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts to adjust each of the figures in Annex I by more than 8 percentage points and up to 16 percentage points, within the available budgetary allocations and in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 31.
Article 20 General eligible actions
The following general actions shall be eligible for financial assistance to enhance prevention of, preparedness for and effective response to disasters: (a) studies, surveys, modelling and scenario building to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, best practices and information; (b) training, exercises, workshops, exchange of staff and experts, creation of networks, demonstration projects and technology transfer; (c) monitoring, assessment and evaluation actions; (d) public information, education and awareness raising and associated dissemination actions, so as to involve citizens in preventing and minimising the effects of disasters in the Union and to help Union citizens to protect themselves more effectively and in a sustainable manner; (e) establishment and running of a programme of lessons learnt from interventions and exercises in the context of the Union Mechanism, including on areas relevant to prevention and preparedness; and (f) communication actions and measures to raise awareness of the civil protection work of the Member States and of the Union in the areas of prevention of, preparedness for and response to disasters.
Article 21 Eligible prevention and preparedness actions
1. The following prevention and preparedness actions shall be eligible for financial assistance: (a) co-financing of projects, studies, workshops, surveys and similar actions and activities referred to in Article 5; (b) co-financing peer reviews, referred to in point (d) of Article 6 and point (j) of Article 8; (c) maintaining the functions provided by the ERCC, in accordance with point (a) of Article 8; (d) preparing for the mobilisation and dispatch of the expert teams referred to in point (d) of Article 8 and Article 17 and developing and maintaining a surge capacity through a network of trained experts of Member States, referred to in point (f) of Article 8; (e) establishing and maintaining the CECIS and tools to enable communication and sharing of information between the ERCC and the contact points of the Member States and of other participants in the context of the Union Mechanism; (f) contributing to the development of transnational detection, early warning and alert systems of European interest, in order to enable a rapid response as well as to promote the inter-linkage between national early warning and alert systems and their linkage to the ERCC and the CECIS. Those systems shall take into account and build upon existing and future information, monitoring or detection sources and systems; (g) planning response operations under the Union Mechanism, in accordance with Article 10; (h) supporting the preparedness activities described in Article 13; (i) developing the EERC, as referred to in Article 11, in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article. (j) identifying gaps in the EERC in accordance with Article 12 and supporting Member States in addressing those gaps by co-financing new response capacities, up to a maximum of 20 % of the eligible costs, provided that: (i) the need for new capacities is confirmed by risk assessments; (ii) the gap identification process set out in Article 12 demonstrates that those capacities are not available to Member States; (iii) those capacities are developed by Member States, either acting individually or through a consortium; (iv) those capacities are committed to the voluntary pool for a minimum period of two years; and (v) such co-financing of those capacities is cost-effective. Where appropriate, preference shall be given to consortia of Member States cooperating on a common risk; (k) ensuring the availability of logistical support for the expert teams referred to in Article 17(1); (l) facilitating the coordination of Member States' pre-positioning of disaster response capacities inside the Union in accordance with point (g) of Article 8; and (m) supporting the provision of advice on prevention and preparedness measures through the deployment of an expert team on site, upon the request of a Member State, third country, the United Nations or its agencies, as referred to in Article 5(2) and Article 13(3). 2. The eligibility for financial assistance for the action referred to in point (i) of paragraph 1 shall be limited to: (a) costs at Union level of setting up and managing the EERC and the associated processes set out in Article 11; (b) costs of obligatory training courses, exercises and workshops necessary for the certification of Member States' response capacities for the purposes of the EERC ("certification costs"). The certification costs may consist of unit costs or lump sums determined per type of capacity, covering up to 100 % of the eligible costs; (c) non-recurrent costs necessary to upgrade Member States' response capacities from their purely national use to a state of readiness and availability that makes them deployable as part of the EERC, in accordance with the quality requirements of the voluntary pool and recommendations formulated in the certification process ("adaptation costs"). Those adaptation costs may include costs related to interoperability of modules and other response capacities, autonomy, self-sufficiency, transportability, packaging and similar costs, as well as the costs of forming multinational response capacities (for example workshops, trainings, development of common methodologies, standards, procedures and similar activities), provided that those costs specifically relate to the capacities' participation in the voluntary pool. They shall not cover the costs of the equipment or human resources necessary to initially set-up the response capacities or on-going maintenance or running costs. Those adaptation costs may consist of unit costs or lump sums determined per type of capacity, covering up to 100 % of the eligible costs, provided this does not exceed 30 % of the average cost of developing the capacity; and (d) costs of establishing and managing framework contracts, framework partnership agreements or similar arrangements to address temporary shortcomings in extraordinary disasters, taking into account a multi-hazard approach. The funding under point (d) of this paragraph: (i) may cover the costs or fees necessary to design, prepare, negotiate, conclude and manage the contracts or arrangements as well as the costs of developing standard operating procedures and exercises to ensure the effective use of assets. Such funding may also cover a maximum of 40 % of the costs of ensuring rapid access to those assets; (ii) shall not cover the costs of purchasing or developing new response capacities, nor the cost of operating these additional capacities in a disaster situation. The costs of operating those additional capacities in a disaster situation shall be borne by the Member States requesting the assistance; (iii) shall not exceed 10 % of the financial envelope set out in Article 19(1). In the event that the 10 % ceiling is reached before the end of the programming period, and when required to ensure the appropriate functioning of the Union Mechanism, that 10 % ceiling may, by means of implementing acts, be exceeded by up to 5 percentage points. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 33(2).
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 21 Eligible prevention and preparedness actions):
3. The financial assistance for the action referred to in point (j) of paragraph 1 shall cover all costs necessary to ensure the availability and deployability of rescEU capacities under the Union Mechanism in accordance with the second subparagraph of this paragraph. The categories of eligible costs necessary to ensure the availability and deployability of rescEU capacities shall be as set out in Annex Ia. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 30 to amend Annex Ia regarding the categories of eligible costs. 3a. The financial assistance referred to in this Article may be implemented by multi-annual work programmes. For actions extending beyond one year, budgetary commitments may be broken down into annual instalments. 5. The costs referred to in paragraph 3 may consist of unit costs, lump sums or flat rates, determined per category or type of capacity, as appropriate.
Article 22 Eligible response actions
The following response actions shall be eligible for financial assistance: (a) dispatching expert teams referred to in Article 17(1) together with logistical support and dispatching experts referred to in points (d) and (e) of Article 8; (b) in the event of a disaster, supporting Member States in obtaining access to equipment and transport resources as specified in Article 23; and (c) pursuant to a request for assistance, taking additional necessary supporting and complementary action in order to facilitate the coordination of response in the most effective way.
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL Reasons for and objectives of the proposal The proposal is intended to amend Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism 1 (‘ the Decision’ ), under which the European Union supports, coordinates and supplements the action s of Member States 2 in the field of civil protection to prevent, prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters within and outside the Union. The sole purpose of the proposed change is to ensure that the Union can continue providing emergency support to Member States in fighting wildfires through the capacities developed under the ‘rescEU transition’, until the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet will become available. In concrete terms, this proposal suggests extending the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 35 from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. This date is aligned with the end of the current Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the wildfire risk in the Union is increasing in scope and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. The 2022 wildfire season in the Union was a record-breaking season. The total number of wildfires in the Union above 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares). Furthermore, the data for 2022 reveal a more than 250% increase over the average burnt area of land since Union-level recording started in 2006. Wildfires have become a serious pan-European concern, affecting not only the Mediterranean region, but also countries including Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia, as demonstrated by their recent activations of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As a notable example, Sweden experienced severe wildfires in 2018. In 2022, 20 Member States have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years. As demonstrated by the wild fire seasons of recent years , the en vironmental, climatic, economic and societal losses associated with wildfires are immense. In 2022 a lone , the wild fires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion, and more than 25 million ton ne s of CO2 emitted. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are in cluded in Natura 2000 sites 3 . This alarming acceleration of wildfires across Europe is expected to continue in the coming years due to the impact of climate change. President Von der Leyen addressed this concern in her State of the Union speech in September 2022, where she stated that “ as disasters become more frequent and more intense, Europe will need more capacity. This is why I can today announce that we will double our firefighting capacity over the next year. ” With an amendment to the Decision in 2019 4 , rescEU was created as a European reserve of capacities to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able or are insufficient to ensure an effective response to the various kinds of disasters . Such capacities have been developed , in particular , in the area of aerial forest firefighting to supplement national capacities 5 . While some of those capacities are readily accessible on the market and can be purchased relatively quickly , the availability of the aerial forest firefighting capacities takes more time. To ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, the Commission was empowered , for a transitional period of an initial five years , to provide financing to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities . It was also specified that the Commission and the Member States should endeavour to obtain additional capacities, including fire-fighting helicopters, in order to better and more efficiently respond to the risk of wildfires , as early as the summer of 2019 6 . It was estimated at the time , based on a market study on currently available aerial forest firefighting assets released on 9 July 2018 7 , that five years would be sufficient , in particular for specialised aircraft to be accessible once again on the market , allowing for the development of permanent fleet . T herefore , an end date of 1 January 2025 was introduced in Article 3 5 of the Decision for the application of that transitional provision . However, recent market developments and more specifically, the absence of the required highly-specialised aircraft on the market show that a longer timeframe ( beyond 2024 ) is needed for the development of amphibious aerial forest firefighting aircraft. The negotiations with the manufacturer of such specialised aircraft are in their final stage ; the delivery of such first planes at an agreed cost is expected to start in 2026 according to the latest reassurances provided by the manufacturer . Thus, the end date set out in Article 35 needs to be further extended until the end of the current MFF , which is 31 December 2027. This period would cover the entire MFF financial envelope of the UCPM in accordance with Article 19 .1a . This proposal is meant to ensure the rapid availability of relevant national capacities beyond the 2024 wildfire season, when the application of the current transitional provision is set to expire. The contracts will need to be prepared well in advance, in 2024, for the deployment of aerial forest firefighting capacities. As a result, the Decision needs to be amended in the current legislature period to allow for the preparations to start in 2024. Therefore, it is urgent that the co-legislators deliberate swiftly on this targeted proposal.
Revised version (Article 22 Eligible response actions):
The following response actions shall be eligible for financial assistance: (b) in the event of a disaster, supporting Member States in obtaining access to equipment and transport and logistical resources as specified in Article 23; and (c) pursuant to a request for assistance, taking additional necessary supporting and complementary action in order to facilitate the coordination of response in the most effective way.