Today the World celebrates the International Day for
Disaster Risk Reduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that it is
of utmost importance to strengthen coordination
between Member States, between all levels of
government and across borders. Solidarity and
cooperation are crucial to overcome the current
crisis and tackle any future outbreak or major
disaster. Therefore, mayors and governors call for
a long-term commitment to further reinforce the EU
Civil Protection Mechanism and its instruments. The
appeal was sent by the Committee of the Regions
(CoR) on 13 October, the International Day for
Disaster Risk Reduction.
Local and regional authorities reiterate their call for
significant strengthening of the emergency and disaster
response capacities of the EU, with the involvement of
national, local and regional emergency response
structures. Through the opinion
A reinforced Union civil protection mechanism
, European mayors and governors ask for a stronger
territorial dimension of the mechanism.
The rapporteur Alberto Cirio (IT/EPP), President of
the Piedmont Region, underlined: "With my opinion I
want to underline the importance of a concrete
involvement of European states, regions and local
authorities in defining the resilience objectives set
at European level. I also believe that it is crucial to
know how to implement a governance system without
dangerous overlaps between the different operational
levels, but stronger, more cohesive and more
effective". The opinion was discussed on 12 October and
will be adopted by the CoR at the end of the plenary
session.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General of
the United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, took
part in the debate. She said: "The case for prevention
and resilience, alongside the critical needs of
response and preparedness, is clear. Europe’s
solidarity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic relies
more than ever on its cities and regions. The
discussion today goes a long way towards reinforcing
this reality and supporting the European Union achieve
goals for disaster resilience across the region".
In 2019, the EU reinforced components of its disaster
risk management by upgrading the
EU Civil Protection Mechanism
.
RescEU
was introduced with the objective of enhancing both the
protection of citizens from disasters and the
management of emerging risks, thanks to a new European
reserve of aircrafts and a stockpile of medical
equipment. The CoR welcomes the
EUR 1.9 billion reinforcement of rescEU
under the new recovery instrument Next Generation EU,
bringing the total allocation to about EUR 3 billion
for the next multiannual financial framework (MFF)
2021-2027. Therefore, the assembly calls for a swift
agreement on and adoption of the EU budget. At the same
time, local and regional authorities underline the need
for more flexibility for deployment of rescEU resources
to effectively respond not only to health crises but
also to other large-scale emergencies.
Additionally, in order to improve the European
preparedness, the CoR proposes the creation of
databases shared between neighbouring countries in
order to identify materials, resources, equipment,
specialised volunteers and logistics.
On 12 October the president of the CoR, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, presented the
first EU-wide
Regional and Local Barometer
produced by the Committee, focused on the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic. EU regional and local authorities
have been on the frontline in tackling the health
crisis and keeping people safe. The report shows how
they are also key to the economic recovery.
Contact:
Matteo Miglietta
Tel. +32 (0)2 282 2440
Mobile: +32 (0)470 895382
matteo.miglietta@cor.europa.eu