Opinion Factsheet 

Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030

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Opinion Number: CDR 5035/2016
Rapporteur: BANASZAK Adam
Commission: NAT
Status: Adopted
Date: 22/03/2017
 
aims to promote disaster resilience by design in all European policies; including those concerning regional development and infrastructure investments;
endorses the elaboration of regional and local action plans for disaster resilience and prevention;
to support the European Commission's proposal COM(2016) 778 providing for the creation of a separate priority axis which would dispense with the requirement for national co-financing of reconstruction operations supported by the ERDF within an operational programme in response to major or regional natural disasters;
During the Global Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction in Cancun, Mexico (22-26 May 2017), during the working session "Achieving the Sendai Framework and SDG’s target at Local Level", CoR Rapporteur Banaszak delivered feedback on the work of EU's local and regional authorities in the field of disaster risk reduction.

The Working Sessions have provided input into the Global Platform Chair’s Summary, which has been submitted to the President of the UN Economic and Social Council as a contribution to the 2017 High-level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF) that took place in New York in July 2017. It informed deliberations on this year’s HLPF theme "Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world" to ensure a risk-informed approach is at the centre of the follow-up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS



- stresses that local and regional authorities have an institutional and political responsibility to protect the public and are a first line of response in crisis situations; highlights the importance of developing interregional cooperation in order to prevent disaster risks;

- strongly supports the European Commission's proposal COM(2016) 778 providing for the creation of a separate priority axis which would dispense with the requirement for national co-financing of reconstruction operations supported by the ERDF within an operational programme in response to major or regional natural disasters;

- endorses the support for national, regional and local risk management strategies and plans aimed, inter alia, at establishing objectives, benchmarks and time frames, and stresses the need to evaluate existing strategies and plans to ensure they are consistent with the Sendai Framework;

- disaster resilience is one of the cornerstones of sustainable development in the European Union;

- stresses that all EU projects relating to construction of new infrastructure should be resilient to disasters; calls for this principle to be mentioned explicitly in rules on how funds are used;

- notes that optimisation of risk management depends on cooperation between local government and national stakeholders, on the one hand, and private stakeholders, on the other, including insurance companies;

Importance

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Joint CoR-UNISDR high-level policy event "Disaster Risk Management in European Regions - Towards Reducing the Number of Affected People"

Description:
The high-level conference will take into account also the conclusions of fact-finding mission of the CoR to Italy that took place on 25 and 26 May 2017 in the four Italian regions hit by multiple earthquakes in 2016 and 2017. It will look into concrete measures including an exchange of good practices and funding available at EU level, and focus on preventive measures targeted at saving lives and livelihoods in possible future disasters.

The CoR-UNISDR action plan seeks to translate the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 into ideas for local and regional governments by engaging both institutions to strengthen the implementation and coordination of disaster risk reduction actions at local level in Europe. The Plan also foresees a joint event in Brussels on the International Day for Disaster Reduction, whose theme in 2017 is Sendai Target (b): Substantially reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030, aiming to lower the average global figure per 100,000 between 2020-2030 compared to 2005-2015.

Furthermore, building resilience has been proposed as one of the main themes for the European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) in October 2017, a traditional annual event co-organised by the European Committee of the Regions and the European Commission.

 
12 Oct
 

Meeting with MEP Enrique Guerrero Salom

The meeting is a follow-up on the global conference in Cancun, where both Mr Banaszak and Mr Guerrero Salom participated as members of the EU delegation. Subject of the discussion were joint future activities on disaster reduction and promotion of resilience.

 
11 Jul
 

Fact-Finding Field Visit of the Conference of Presidents and the NAT Commission to Central Italy

The COP / NAT Field Visit to Central Italy, regions affected by the earthquakes took place on 25 to 26 May 2017.

The towns visited were Compotosto in Abruzzo; Peascara del Tronto, Amandola, Cosmari in Marche; Norcia in Umbria; Amatrice in Lazio.

BBC News report

 
25 May
 

Field visit to Central Italy

A delegation of 9 CoR Members including CoR President Markku Markkula and CoR Vice-President Karl Heinz-Lambertz visited the four regions affected by the earthquakes.

In 2016 and 2017, Central Italy was hit by violent seismic activity, concentrated in the regions of Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and Marche. This was the largest series of tremors since 2009, when an earthquake near L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region killed over 300 people and displaced over 60 000. Four major earthquakes struck Central Italy again near L'Aquila on 18 January 2017.

Ansa.it news report

Ansa.Marche news report

 
25 May
 

Objectives of the Field Visit to the regions affected by the earthquakes

The objectives of the field visit were to show political support for the affected regions; to exchange best practices: to receive information on the state of play and the strategy for managing the impact of the earthquakes by each region, with a view to translating this into policy recommendations and to receive information on the Italian civil protection mechanism.

TG 3 video report

TGRAI video report

 
25 May
 

Committee of the Regions represented at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction held in Cancún, Mexico on 22-26 May

Adam Banaszak (PL/ECR) , vice-president of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Regional Assembly, was representing European local and regional government at the global conference, as part of the official EU delegation. Followig up on the CoR's opinion on the Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 , Mr Banaszak underlined that achieving the key objective of the Action Plan of increasing the number of countries with national and local risk-management plans by 2020, requires the different tiers of government in different countries to work together.

 
22 May
 

European Forum For Disaster Risk Reduction Istanbul, Turkey

CoR Rapporteur Banaszak participated in the European Forum For Disaster Risk Reduction Istanbul, Turkey, delivering a speach during the featured event "Risk Governance: How to achieve the Sendai Target e on risk-informed national and local DRR strategies by 2020 Target"

 
27 Mar
 

Adoption of the opinion in the Plenary

The opinion was adopted at the Plenary Session.

 
23 Mar
 

NAT Stakeholders Consultation: Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030

On 17 January 2017 the rapporteur of the opinion, Adam Banaszak (PL/ECR), Member of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Regional Assembly, together with his expert, Pawel Modrzynski, met representatives of local and regional authorities and associations and other stakeholders for a consultation and an exchange of views on the relevant topics of this opinion.

Among the speakers were the head of the UNISDR Regional Office for Europe Paola Albrito and the representatives of the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of the European Commission (DG ECHO) Julia Stewart-David and Thomas De Lannoy. Valuable contributions were made by researchers on epidemiology from UCL (Ms Guha and Team) and representatives of local and regional authorities (Greater Manchester Authority, Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Mayor of Viana do Castelo Mr. José Maria Cunha Costa)

 
17 Mar
 

Draft opinion adopted at the NAT commission meeting

The rapporteur presented his draft opinion to the members of the NAT commission. Paola ALBRITO, Head of Regional Office for Europe, UNISDR and Julia STEWART-DAVID, DG ECHO, European Commission took part in the discussion.

 
02 Feb
 

Working document discussion at the NAT Commission meeting

The rapporteur presented his working document to the members of the NAT commission.

 
28 Nov
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