The EU Civil Protection Mechanism is a system established in 2001 for coordinating rescue and humanitarian assistance in the event of natural and man-made disasters whose scale or nature exceeds the response capabilities of the affected country (legal basis – Decision 1313/13/EU).

The Mechanism provides an institutional platform for participating States to interact with EU institutions responsible for civil protection. 

The Mechanism is a tool for Community preparation, prevention and response to natural or man-made disasters. The assistance it provides consists in particular in directing specialised and adequately equipped rescue teams (modules) to the operations and providing material and expert assistance. 

The Mechanism covers 34 European countries (27 EU Member States, United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey).

Launching the Mechanism’s assistance measures (the so-called ‘activation’) depends on receiving an official appeal for assistance from the country affected by a disaster.

Assistance may be requested by countries participating in the UCPM, other countries of the world and eligible international organisations. Activities in the response phase shall be complemented by activities supporting risk prevention and preparation for operations, mainly those of an international nature.

In the Republic of Poland, the role of the contact point for the EU Civil Protection Mechanism is played by the National Centre for Rescue Coordination and Civil Protection under the National Headquarters of the State Fire Service.

Response under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism is based on:

1.  spontaneous offers of rescue and humanitarian state aid from countries participating in the Mechanism
   • for operations abroad carried out as part of the aforementioned spontaneous offers, the State Fire Service prepared modules for analysing and sampling of CBRN contamination and modules for extinguishing forest fires from the ground using vehicles.
2. European Civil Protection Pool – national resources that are readily available to be deployed at the request of the European Commission
   • Poland contributed the resources of the State Fire Service to the Pool: one search and rescue group ‘USAR Poland’ and two high-capacity HCP pump modules. In June 2020, Poland, in consideration of the need for the Mechanism to be ready to respond to various threats, offered to make a contribution to the Pool in the form of three modules for extinguishing forest fires from the ground, using vehicles created by the State Fire Service;
   • pool configuration also covers resources for reacting to CBRN events, including CBRN sampling and analysis modules, search and rescue groups for operations under conditions of CBRN contamination, drone teams, mobile laboratories, decontamination teams, water treatment modules, medical teams, and medical evacuation teams;
   • countries with resources contributed to the pool may apply for adaptation grants to upgrade for international operations or to repair their resources.
3. rescEU – the EU reserve of resources available at the request of the European Commission, which are primarily intended for international operations
   • An important element of rescEU are the resources available for CBRN events; forest fires, specialised medical rescue teams and medical resources available in case of epidemic threats.
4. EUCPT – multinational expert European Union civil protection teams, dealing with (depending on the situation) analysing the needs of the affected country, coordination of incoming assistance and field advice.

Development of the rescEU reserve

So far, the work on the development of rescEU has focused on the resources provided for:

• extinguishing forest fires from the air with airplanes and helicopters (the so-called initial composition of the rescEU)
• conducting aerial medical evacuation of patients with highly infectious diseases
• conducting aerial medical evacuation of victims of natural disasters
• provide specialist medical care (including surgical care and evacuation of infected persons).

UCPM activities in response to COVID-19

In the event of major emergencies (such as the COVID-19 pandemic), rapid coordinated action at European level was justified. Therefore, already at the outset of the pandemic, UCPM was activated and used for humanitarian assistance and coordinate repatriation flights of EU citizens from third countries (in total over 85,000 people were repatriated).

Poland joined humanitarian assistance activities under the UCPM by organising the transport of medical aid for Belarus in June 2020 (deliveries included 1 million medical masks, 4 million protective masks, 250 thousand litres of disinfectants, 50 thousand aprons and overalls, 20 thousand visors and 30 ventilators, and 21 thousand medication packages).

As regards repatriation flights, attention should be drawn to Poland’s positive experiences in this area. The Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (National Coordinator of Repatriation Flights) has positively assessed the functioning of UCPM in the context of organising air transport and repatriation. Poland has twice launched procedures for its own repatriation flights (in January 2020 in connection with the evacuation from Wuhan and in April 2020 from Marrakesh). Polish citizens used repatriation flights organised by other EU Member States from various directions (402 individuals; as of 20 May 2020).

Due to the rapid development of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to extend the scope of rescEU by including medical resources dedicated to pandemic threats (PPE, ventilators, tests, etc.). Poland supported the EC’s implementing decision on extending the reserve at the Civil Protection Committee meeting on 17 March 2020.

While expanding the functionalities of the Mechanism, work continued on building the rescEU reserve under the UCPM and managed by the European Commission, which aims at pooling specialised resources for comprehensive civil protection. The first stage in the creation of rescEU was to define its so-called initial composition covering the resources intended for extinguishing forest fires from the air using planes and helicopters. In the next stage medical components were added to rescEU, including the capacity to conduct aerial medical evacuation of patients with highly infectious diseases, conduct aerial medical evacuation of victims of natural disasters and provide specialist medical care including surgical care.

Operational and financial strengthening of the UCPM

A draft of the Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 1313/2013/EU on the Union Civil Protection Mechanism was submitted to the Member States on 2 June 2020.

The overall objective of the project is to provide the Union with better support in crisis situations for people in Europe and beyond. This goal is to be achieved through strengthening the UCPM. 

The Explanatory Memorandum underlines that a strengthened Mechanism will facilitate a better preparation of the Union and the Member States and an effective response to future crises, especially those with serious effects that threaten the functioning of economies and societies.

The proposal provides for the strengthening of the functioning of the UCPM both financially from the EU recovery instrument, as well as operationally through such means as increasing and enhancing the role of the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) as an integrated operational centre.

The project also aims to strengthen the UCPM’s rescEU reserve to create reserves of strategic equipment in case of health threats, forest fires, chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents and other major accidents.

Implementation of the specific objectives proposed in the proposal is also intended to strengthen the Union’s capabilities in terms of risk management related to natural disasters and catastrophes by using an approach that accounts for all risks, from response and recovery to disaster and catastrophe prevention.

This project is part of the process of continuously strengthening both the Mechanism itself and the Community’s resilience to threats and increasing the risk management capabilities of participating countries. The document proposes a number of actions (specific objectives) to strengthen the functioning of the EU civil protection dimension. Those are:

1. strengthening the approach based on cross-sectoral and societal preparedness for cross-border disaster or catastrophe risk management, including the establishment of a baseline scenario and planning elements at the European level, taking into account the impact of climate change on disaster and catastrophe risk;
2. ensuring that the Commission is able to directly obtain adequate security in the form of rescEU capabilities;
3. ensuring that the Commission has the logistical capacity necessary to provide universal aerial services in the event of an emergency, as well as to ensure immediate transport and assistance;
4. developing a more flexible system of responding to large-scale emergencies;
5. enhancing the role of the Emergency Response Coordination Centre in operational coordination and monitoring to support a rapid and effective EU response to a variety of crises inside and outside the Union, complementing the existing crisis response mechanisms and in line with existing inter-institutional agreements;
6. allowing for greater investments in EU level preparedness and further simplifying the budget implementation rules;
7. enabling the implementation of rehabilitation and resilience measures under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism through funding from the EU Recovery Instrument, which is considered part of external assigned revenue pursuant to Article 21 (5) of the Financial Regulation.

 

The project provides for support to the UCPM amounting to EUR 3,466,402 million; of which EUR 1,278,782 million will come from the EU budget under budget heading 5 ‘Resilience, Security and Defence’ of the multi-annual financial framework for 2021–2027 and EUR 2,187,620 million from the EU Recovery Instrument.