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The Financial Instrument for Civil Protection

Roberto Schiliro, Head of Sector, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Unit, DG Environment, European Commission

- What are the origins of the Financial Instrument for Civil Protection? What is the political idea behind it?

The Civil Protection Financial Instrument was established in 2007 as part of a recast of the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection. The Mechanism facilitates the coordination of assistance during major emergencies inside and outside the Union. The Financial Instrument builds on previous financing programmes. Since 1999, the Community provided grants to implement actions for the protection of persons, property and environment in the event of natural and technological disasters. The Community Civil Protection Action Programme covered initiatives dealing with prevention, preparedness and response to disasters. Projects included information and awareness-raising activities, cooperation, exchange of experience and mutual assistance between Member States. The Action Programme ran out in 2006 and since 2007, the Financial Instrument finances actions to enhance disaster prevention and preparedness and strengthen response in a multinational context.

- Examples of actions that were financed



The Civil Protection Financial Instrument finances a large variety of actions. Successful past projects include a high capacity pumping module (preparedness project 2009), an extension of the MeteoAlarm weather alert system (www.meteoalarm.eu) to include five-day forecasts (prevention project 2009) and a flooding simulation exercise in the Netherlands involving five Member States (exercise call 2008). In 2010, grants are available for exercises (€2m), preparedness (€1.35m) and prevention (€1.7m) projects while we will also be procuring services for training courses (€5m), an exchange of experts programme (€0.6m) and exercises for modules (€2m). Most of the calls will be published around January/February. Many past projects have been highly innovative and we look forward to this year\'s proposals.



Particular horizontal priorities in 2010 will be prevention and CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) emergencies. Based on our Communication on a Community approach to natural and man-made disasters from early 2009 and subsequent Council conclusions, our priorities in the area of disaster prevention include risk mapping and exchange of best practice. As for CBRN, both the preparedness and exercise calls reflect the priorities in the CBRN action plan adopted at the end of last year.



In addition to the 2010 calls under the Financial Instrument, we will also finance projects under the \'preparatory action on an EU rapid response capability\'. The preparatory action makes available €7.5m to test innovative arrangements for European civil protection. It is now in its third and final year and we are planning to publish the call for proposals in February. Tentative focus areas are arrangements on aerial forest fire fighting, niche or deficit capacities – areas like CBRN and floods – and setting up networks of scientific experts to support teams on site, especially in the field of CBRN.

Our grants and procurement programme offers an excellent opportunity for regional and local civil protection authorities, NGOs and other stakeholders to get involved in civil protection at EU level.



- What is the link with the Solidarity Fund?



Our programmes are not directly linked to the Solidarity Fund, as they deal primarily with prevention, preparedness and response to disasters, whereas the Solidarity Fund focuses on recovery after disaster has struck. There are nevertheless synergies between the two instruments. A number of Mechanism interventions inside the EU have occurred in areas which subsequently received funding through the Solidarity Fund.



- What is the place of the programme in the overall EU environmental strategy?



The number of natural disasters is expected to increase as a result of climate change. Strengthening the prevention of natural disasters is therefore an important part of any adaptation and mitigation strategy. In the future, the importance of this area will no doubt continue to grow.




Please have a look at our website http://ec.europa.eu/environment/civil/prote/finance.htm for updates on published calls and to learn more about civil protection.