Better response to and prevention of natural disasters

Today, the European Commission presented its ideas to reinforce Europe's ability to deal with natural disasters. ‘rescEU’ is an EU civil protection response reserve of civil protection assets, fully covered by EU financing, which will include firefighting aircraft and water-pumping equipment to enhance national resources.

“The latest catastrophes in Europe have shown that European States, taken individually, do not always have the capacity to respond in an urgent and satisfactory manner. The initiative to create a new European Union Civil Protection Mechanism is expected to fill a gap that we should have closed long ago, as I have always advocated. I welcome this initiative which I hope will move forward immediately and which will become one of the pillars of the future internal security policy. Europe has to stand with its people, right where they need it most. This is a good step, this is a good example!”, stated Paulo Rangel MEP.

Under today's proposal, Member States will be asked to share their national prevention and preparedness strategies in order to collectively identify and address possible gaps. The proposal strengthens cooperation and coherence with existing EU policies dealing with prevention and preparedness.

“Civil protection is an area in which the vast majority of citizens want to see a committed European Union. Therefore, we need a stronger prevention capacity, preparedness and response at European level. Once again, the European Parliament will work for better cooperation among and with Member States. We will simplify procedures and increase both co-financing and funding instruments. We will work on building up and disseminating a culture of risk awareness, indispensable to living in a truly resilient territory. It is time to swiftly take a step further”, concluded Elisabetta Gardini MEP.