Regulation (EU) 2021/836

What it is

to enhance the Union's Civil Protection Mechanism in order to enable Member States to be better prepared and to react quickly and effectively to future crises with cross-border implications, such as the COVID-19 crisis. PROPOSED ACT: Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the event of serious emergencies whose scale and scope affect the whole of the European Union, a collective, coordinated and urgent response is needed to avoid a fragmented approach that would limit the effectiveness of the Union's response. The European Parliament adopted by 617 votes to 52, with 23 abstentions, amendments to the proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision No 1313/2013/EU on the Union civil protection mechanism. The matter was referred back to the committee responsible for inter-institutional negotiations. Strengthening the legislative proposal on prevention and preparedness Members stated that Member States should take into account the EU's disaster resilience goals when drawing up their risk management plans. These are objectives set out to support prevention and preparedness actions to improve the capacity of the EU and its Member States to withstand the effects of a disaster that causes or is likely to cause cross-border effects. - develop transnational detection and early warning systems of Union interest in order to mitigate the immediate effects of disasters or pandemics on human lives; - provide technical training assistance to local communities for the purpose of enhancing their capacities as regards their first unassisted reaction to a crisis. - improve disaster risk management planning at national level, including cross-border collaboration, taking into account the Union's disaster resilience objectives; - improve disaster loss data collection at the national or appropriate sub-national level to ensure evidence-based scenario, especially when it comes to identifying gaps in cross-border disaster-response capacities. In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to improve the EU's health and civil protection response capacity, Members considered that the EU's response capacity should be considerably strengthened in order to improve its performance in each of the three pillars of the EU mechanism: prevention, preparedness and response. - establish, within logistical hubs, European reserves of medical countermeasures and equipment which would include the medical countermeasures that respond to high impact low probability events; - regularly update the information on the number and classification of rescEU capacities and make that information directly available to other Union institutions. Members consider that the European Commission should be able to acquire capacity directly, so as to enable the EU mechanism to respond quickly and effectively to Member States' needs, where appropriate. Where the Commission acquires rescEU capacities, it shall retain the…

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