Civil protection: Council agrees its negotiating mandate to strengthen disaster prevention, preparedness and response
EU ambassadors today agreed a negotiating mandate on a proposal to strengthen the EU civil protection mechanism. The EU is reinforcing its preparedness and its response capacities to make sure it can quickly react to any natural or man made disaster, including those affecting a majority of member states simultaneously.
The proposed rules would allow the European Commission to address gaps in the area of transport and logistics, and, in cases of urgency, directly procure certain additional rescEU capacities. These rescEU capacities, as well as those hosted by member states, would be fully financed from the EU budget.
Prevention and preparedness would be improved under the proposed regulation, with the Commission and member states defining and developing EU disaster resilience goals in the area of civil protection.
This mandate completes the partial negotiating position agreed by ambassadors in October on the parts of the proposal related to the 2021-2027 funding of the mechanism. Negotiations with the European Parliament on the full text of the proposal can now start.
