Getting ready to respond to crises
The European Union is facing unprecedented threats – from geopolitical tensions and conflicts, cybersecurity and information manipulation risks, to climate change and increasing risks of natural hazards. To boost the EU's ability to anticipate, prevent, and respond to these threats, the Commission has presented the preparedness union strategy.
The strategy aims to enhance the EU’s civilian and military preparedness and readiness for future crises so that all actors are ready and capable to respond quickly and effectively if needed. The strategy will help national preparedness efforts by enhancing coordination and efficiency within existing strategies and by fostering a culture of resilience through the engagement of all levels of society.
The strategy is based on
- integrated all-hazards approach: it focuses on preparing for and responding to all types of hazards, rather than addressing them separately
- whole-of-society approach: all sectors, organisations and individuals should be involved
- whole-of-government approach: government agencies and departments coordinate and collaborate to address hazards more effectively
The strategy includes detailed actions to advance the preparedness union’s objectives.
Key actions of the preparedness union strategy
Foresight and anticipation
- develop an EU comprehensive risks and threats assessment
- set up a crisis dashboard for decision-makers
- strengthen the Emergency Response Coordination Centre
- develop an EU catalogue for training and a platform for lessons learned
- establish an EU Earth Observation Governmental Service (EOGS)
Resilience of vital societal functions
- embed preparedness by design into EU policies and actions
- adopt minimum preparedness requirements
- revise the Union Civil Protection Mechanism
- propose an EU stockpiling strategy
- propose a Climate Adaptation Plan
- ensure supply of water and other critical natural resources
Population preparedness
- improve early warning systems
- increase awareness about risks and threats
- promote awareness-raising programmes, such as citizens panels, online campaigns, and toolkits for strategic communication and countering information manipulation
- develop guidelines to reach a population self-sufficiency of minimum 72 hours
- include preparedness in school education curricula and training of educational staff
- promote preparedness in youth programmes
- attract talent to reinforce EU’s preparedness
Public-private cooperation
- establish a public-private Preparedness Task Force
- develop public-private emergency protocols
- revise the public procurement framework
- establish a European Centre of Expertise on Research Security
Civil-military cooperation
- establish comprehensive civil-military preparedness arrangements
- develop standards for civilian-military dual use planning and investment
- organise regular EU exercises to promote comprehensive preparedness
Crisis response coordination
- set up an EU crisis coordination hub
- boost rescEU EU-level reserve of response capacities
Resilience through external partnerships
- advance mutual resilience with candidate countries
- integrate preparedness and resilience into bilateral partnerships and multilateral institutions
- integrate preparedness and resilience into the cooperation with NATO
- develop mutual resilience through external economic and development policies
Background
In her political guidelines, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen emphasised the importance of building up Europe’s capabilities as well as the need for new ambition on crisis and security preparedness.
The Niinistö Report on Preparedness and Readiness of the EU underlined the urgent need to strengthen Europe’s civilian and military preparedness to address security challenges. It recognised that preparedness is both a national and shared European responsibility requiring the Union to play a stronger role in supporting Member States.