The conference "Cross-border crisis management and natural disasters" took place in the CoR on 3 February 2017, co-organized by the CoR, MOT and the Liberec Regions. The conference was opened by Mr Pavel Branda, Member of the CoR and chair of the inter-regional group, who emphasized the need to tackle this issue at EU level as natural disasters often happen in border regions, however the EU's programmes are often not designed to deal with this issue at an inter-state level.

The conference aimed at presenting best practices of cross-border cooperation in the field of crisis management, in the prevention and dealing with cross-border natural disasters. The conference also aimed at identifying obstacles that prevent better coordination and use of resources. 

The participants had an opportunity to hear how forest fires are managed on the Spanish – Portuguese border, how floods are dealt with on the Czech-German-Polish border, as well as how a crisis is tackled in mountainous areas (FR-IT-CH) and in the field of civil protection (IT-FR).

Colleagues from the European Commission's DG REGIO had an opportunity to answer to the concerns raised by the speakers and present possible solutions to the crises that can occur in cross-border areas.  The participants also had an opportunity to hear how the United Nation's Office for Disaster Risk Reduction deals with natural disasters in cross-border areas.

The presentations from the conference can be downloaded here.