Civil Protection Mechanism Research Articles

Effectiveness to the Emergency Management in Public Organizations: A Paradigm from a European Civil Protection Mechanism

Every state's priority is public safety. In the modern world, that often needs them to work with other States. This study assesses the role of civil protection mechanisms in effective emergency management operations in public organizations based on the European perspective. Data was collected from 392 different technocrats from government civil protection agencies in Greece using an online questionnaire. The study revealed that civil protection experts positively influence effective emergency management operations in public organizations. The results revealed that early warning systems have an influence on effective emergency management operations in public organizations. Disaster risk forecasting has a positive influence on effective emergency management operations in public organizations. According to the study, crises and catastrophes have compelled the EU to improve civil protection coordination throughout the continent and its ability to conduct operations both inside and outside of Europe. It's not clear whether these cooperative EU agreements are going to succeed because national civil defense organizations aren't always similar and there isn't always enough trust between the organizations involved. This is especially true in light of recent global crises in the EU, such as the refugee crisis, terrorist attacks, and natural. It is important for public organizations across Europe to focus on enhancing early disaster warning systems, the enhancing of civil protection experts and improving disaster planning to promote effective management of emergencies.

Civil Protection in Europe: Towards a Unified Command System? Update on knowledge-sharing work and future actions

In the context of climate change, increasing disaster severity and extension, the paper suggests to DGECHO, agency managing the European civil protection mechanism, an improvement for joint operations command-and-control practices. It constitutes an update of Monet et al. (2020) paper, enhancing the work progresses in terms of analysis, applicability, monitoring and training. In this perspective, the work of the authors is completely dedicated to the improvement of interoperability when different (national) civil protection forces work together, to respond to emergencies or disasters. Building on theoretical comparative studies, this opinion paper now relies on an interoperability monitoring tool and consolidates the ways on defining the future for an “European Command System”, proposing innovative operational practices by associating knowledge exchange and operational training. Actually, the presentation will depict how to organize a training strategy at European level, alternating international and regional courses, to pave the way for future harmonization.

PECULIARITIES OF LEGAL SUPPORT FOR THE FUNCTIONING OF THE CIVIL PROTECTION SYSTEM IN THE EU COUNTRIES

The article analyses the peculiarities of legal support of the European system of civil protection of population and territories. The author emphasizes that over the years, the EU has developed the main instruments through which all of its civilian security policy objectives are achieved.
 It is proved that building a modern and powerful civil defence system of the population and territories of Ukraine requires even more close cooperation with the relevant European structures, including within the framework of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (EU Civil Protection).
 The priorities of the EU's civil protection programs are to enhance cybersecurity and a safer online environment through the development and effective use of the digital capabilities of the European Union and its Member States. Significant attention is paid to supporting data and network protection, which strives for technological sovereignty while respecting privacy and other fundamental human rights. Joint European projects contribute to ensuring the security of services, processes and products, and ensure the formation of reliable digital infrastructures that can withstand and counter cyberattacks and hybrid threats.
 The study of the peculiarities of Ukraine's cooperation with the EU in the field of civil protection allows us to state that Ukraine's accession to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism will allow it to fully use all EU instruments and programs to develop the national civil protection system and attract assistance, and to continue future cooperation within the framework of the new strategic program of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism for 2024-2027.
 The peculiarities of using the experience of the EU countries to develop a system for ensuring public safety and protection of critical facilities during emergencies in Ukraine will be determined by the transformation of the public administration system in the post-war period.

Organizational and Legal Principles of Implementation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in Ukraine in the Context of Guaranteeing National Security

It was established that one of the integration vectors of Ukraine's development is the formation of the security system in general and the provision of civil protection in particular. It was found that full-scale aggression against Ukraine leads to an increase in the number of emergency situations, destruction of critical infrastructure, environmental damage, etc. Given the fact that a full-scale war is ongoing, problematic issues in the field of civil protection for our state are crystallizing, taking on larger and larger scales. It is difficult for Ukraine to respond to emergency situations on its own, so it relies on international aid mechanisms. One of them is the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. It was found that this Mechanism was founded in 2001 and includes 33 countries. Ukraine will also join this Mechanism in 2023. The mentioned Mechanism is the most significant asset of the European Union in the field of civil protection, providing for the provision of additional assistance to the affected country (at its request) during the response to natural and man-made disasters. Unfortunately, when responding to disasters caused by acts of terrorism, nuclear or radiological accidents, the Civil Protection Mechanism is not used to its full extent. It has been established that Ukraine must ensure its own development of institutional capacity, the foundation of which is the organizational and legal basis of the functioning of the public administration system. It is substantiated that the achievement of institutional capacity in the field of civil defense of Ukraine requires the implementation of a number of management measures. Among them, personnel, organizational, informational, legal and financial ones are defined. At the same time, it is insisted that the measures of personnel and organizational and legal direction are the first priority in implementation, because they require a lot of time. The application of the method of historical formalization made it possible to determine the stages of development of legal support of public administration in the field of civil protection of Ukraine. It is emphasized that the current stage of the development of legal support in this area is marked by laying the foundations for the implementation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in Ukraine. In this context, the Parliament of Ukraine ratified the relevant Agreement. An analysis of its provisions gives reason to assert that participation in the Mechanism involves the payment of a membership fee, which is calculated taking into account the annual indicators of the EU and the member state of the Civil Protection Mechanism. Considering this, it is insisted that for Ukraine financial support as a criterion for participation in this Mechanism may become an extremely difficult issue during implementation, which needs to be solved on a systemic basis

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT INDEX IN THE NEW GEO-POLITICAL CONTEXT

The opportunity of this research topic lies in the current extremely challenging geopolitical context that has led to the outbreak of multiple crises: energy, economic, social, financial, food, etc. The European Union has thus positioned itself in the face of these phenomena by creating several instruments to manage crises and increase resilience: civil protection mechanism, integrated mechanism for political response to crises, cross-border cooperation and solidarity mechanisms, food security crisis plans, resilience measures against physical and digital risks.The paper aims to analyse the necessity of changing the regional approach across the EU under the impact of the pandemic. Specific regional socio-economic indicators for EU NUTS2 regions are analysed during 2010–2021. The main objective of this research is to quantify the regional socioeconomic and to realise comparative analysis related to three moments in time: the latest EU enlargement, the economic crisis and the pandemic. The novelty of the study was the building of a new dynamic multi-criteria model assessing the strategic perspective, which was built to offer pertinent solutions for the regional decision makers in order to ensure cohesion and sustainable development on short and medium term.

Deployment of the French Civil Protection Field Hospital (ESCRIM) in Gölbaşi, Turkey after the February 2023 Earthquake: Lessons Learned.

Following the two earthquakes that occurred in Turkey on February 6, 2023 with magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5, causing over 50,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries, France proposed to deploy, via the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (EUCPM), the French Civil Protection Field Hospital (ESCRIM [Élément de Sécurité Civile Rapide d'Intervention Médicale]): the French World Health Organization (WHO)-classified Emergency Medical Team (EMT) Level 2 (EMT2).After the acceptance from Turkey on February 8, a disaster assessment team (DAT) was sent on February 10, 2023. It was decided, with local health authorities (LHA), to set up the field hospital in Gölbaşi, Adiyaman Province where the State Hospital was closed due to a structural risk.Arriving in Gölbaşi on February 13 at 2:00am in -12°C (10°F) temperatures, the detachment had no choice but to begin setting up the base of operation (BoO). At dawn, the cold was so intense that one doctor suffered from frostbite. Once the BoO was installed, the team set up the hospital tents. From 11:00am, the sun melted the snow and the ground became very muddy. The objective being to open the hospital as soon as possible, installation of the hospital continued, and it opened on February 14 at 12:00pm/noon, less than 36 hours after on-site arrival.This article describes the mechanics of setting up an EMT-2 in a cold climate, the many problems encountered, and the solutions imagined and proposed.

Union Civil Protection Mechanism as an International Policy Tool Supporting Ukraine

As a long-term researcher and active participant in the rescue and humanitarian international aid coordination action, the author undertakes the analysis of changes that have occurred since the inception of the legal basis and international crisis coordination structures, focusing on the increasing role of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. The material contains not only the analysis of normative documents and a comprehensive description of the pillars of European civil protection but also practical examples of the European mechanism’s increasing involvement in actions outside the Union over two decades and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article contains examples of material and hardware-based humanitarian aid implemented for Ukraine and a comprehensive systemic approach to Polish civil protection represented by the State Fire Service in preparation for Ukrainian representatives to be familiar with the European Civil Protection mechanism. Numerous examples of activating the mechanism from the Polish perspective are shown both from the perspective of the aid recipient (fire in Biebrza National Park in 2020) and the donor (Lebanon blast in 2020, earthquake in Nepal 2015, forest fires in France 2022 or support to Ukraine).

Seismic risk assessment in transboundary areas: the case study on the border between Italy and Slovenia

An important aspect to take into account in the process of prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response to catastrophes is the risk assessment in transboundary areas that is not yet harmonized. Indeed, transboundary risk assessment cannot be based directly on national risk assessment because the neighbouring countries use different risk assessment methodologies and levels of detail. To address this issue, a harmonisation process should be implemented to establish the use of shared approaches and employ common data types and analysis models, which allow representing the impact of the seismic hazards in a shared framework among the countries. This paper illustrates the proposed methodology for seismic risk assessment in the area on the border between Italy and Slovenia, in particular in the region near Gorizia and Nova Gorica. This activity is one of the products of the BORIS project (Cross BOrder RISk assessment for increased prevention and preparedness in Europe) that focuses on the assessment of seismic risk and flood risk, having cross-border impact potential in several countries participating in the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. Furthermore, a web-based platform developed to facilitate the storage and visualization of data, models, and the representation of damage and impact data following a common metrics approach is presented.

The Italian experience and its contribution to the Union Civil Protection Mechanism in reinforcing cultural heritage protection through the Proculther project

Purpose. The aim of the article is to explain how the Italian response capacities for the safeguarding of cultural heritage at risk of disaster has been enhanced over the past twenty-five years and how it has contributed to raising the awareness of this issue at international level. Approach/methodology. For this purpose, the main steps made in the last decades by Italy in including the protection of cultural heritage among other emergency issues are described below. In fact, Italy has made many efforts in the past decades to improve the emergency management of cultural heritage, paying particular attention to preparedness, prevention and response actions. Since the end of the past century, dedicated training courses have been organized at all levels as well as local, national and international exercises with specific scenarios dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage at risk of disaster in order to test specific procedures needed to ensure this type of response. In the meantime, the drafting of standard operating procedures specifically addressing the protection of vulnerable cultural heritage emerged as a result of a keen collaboration between the Italian Ministry of Culture (Italian acronym MiC) and the National Civil Protection Department (Italian acronym DPC). Findings. In this process of constant evolution of operational and technical capacities aimed at reducing the risk of cultural heritage disasters, the combination of past experience and acquired competences of Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, ICCROM and Fondazione Villa Montesca has prompted the launch of the PROCULTHER project, co-funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG-ECHO). Value. The project aims to support and complement the efforts made by the European Union to strengthen cooperation between the EU Member States and Participating States in this field. In this sense, by pooling together European civil protection capacities and capabilities and providing for common standards enabling certified and well-equipped teams to work interchangeably when a disaster strikes, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), is an essential and effective system aimed at allowing a stronger and more coherent collective response. Under this framework, the project is promoting, for the first time, the development of a common European methodology, tools and capacities in order to include the protection of cultural heritage in the disaster risk management cycle and to ensure structured collaboration among cultural heritage and civil protection stakeholders at local, national and European level.

Burn mass casualty incidents in Europe: A European response plan within the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism

BackgroundBurn care is centralized in highly specialized burn centers in Europe. These centers are of limited capacity and may be overwhelmed by a sudden surge in case of a burn mass casualty incident. Prior incidents in Europe and abroad have sustained high standards of care through well-orchestrated responses to share the burden of care in several burn centers. A burn mass casualty incident in Romania in 2015 sparked an initiative to strengthen the existing EU mechanisms. This paper aims to provide insight into developing a response plan for burn mass casualties within the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. MethodsThe European Burns Association drafted medical guidelines for burn mass casualty incidents based on a literature review and an in-depth analysis of the Romanian incident. An online questionnaire surveyed European burn centers and EU States for burn mass casualty preparedness. ResultsThe Romanian burn mass casualty in 2015 highlighted the lack of a burn-specific mechanism, leading to the late onset of international transfers. In Europe, 71% of respondents had existing mass casualty response plans, though only 35% reported having a burn-specific plan. A burns response plan for burn mass casualties was developed and adopted as a Commission staff working document in preparation for further implementation. The plan builds on the existing Union Civil Protection Mechanism framework and the standards of the WHO Emergency Medical Teams initiative to provide 1) burn assessment teams for specialized in-hospital triage of patients, 2) specialized burn care across European burn centers, and 3) medevac capacities from participating states. ConclusionThe European burn mass casualty response plan could enable the delivery of high-level burn care in the face of an overwhelming incident in an affected European country. Further steps for integration and implementation of the plan within the Union Civil Protection Mechanism framework are needed.

The EU to the rescEU? Assessing the geopolitics of the EU’s medical stockpile

This article uses a geopolitical lens to assess the EU’s response to COVID-19 by exploring the Commission’s creation of an emergency medical stockpile, dubbed rescEU. The article describes the creation, financing and distribution of this stockpile, which comes under the aegis of the Civil Protection Mechanism, in its first year of operation, 2020–1. What the analysis shows is how the creation and distribution of medical assistance was justified by the need to adapt to a changing international environment, one in which Russia and China contested the EU’s solidarity, both within the EU27 and towards its neighbours. The EU has committed to investing large sums to develop pandemic resilience via stockpiling. However, what remains to be seen is how far such a policy can strengthen solidarity and counteract anti-EU narratives in the global context of the increasing strategic competition facing the EU.

Mehanizam civilne zaštite Evropske unije i pozicioniranje Republike Srbije u okvirima evropske civilne zaštite

The main goal of this paper is to present the structure, functioning and organization of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, considering various aspects of international cooperation in the field of emergency management provided by the European civil protection system, and analysis of parallel processes, challenges and possible directions of development arising from the participation of the Republic of Serbia in this program of the European Union intended to strengthen cooperation in the field of emergency management. Starting from the understanding that international cooperation is an important segment of the disaster risk reduction and emergency management system, which encourages and supports the process of developing national technical capacities at the same time strengthening human resources, a quantitative and qualitative approach is used to consider the existing level of cooperation, and to hypothetically analyze how the higher intensity of cooperation could maximize the effects arising from the participation of the Republic of Serbia in the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. The expected result refers to summarizing open issues, but also open opportunities provided by the Mechanism, with insight into existing processes and activities independently implemented and as a national contact point in accordance with its competencies at the inter-institutional level coordinated by the Sector for Emergency Management of the Ministry of the Interior.

Mehanizam civilne zaštite EU i Srbija - perspektive saradnje

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism was established in 2001 to bring together Member States' capacities for a joint response to natural and technical and technological disasters, which go beyond national response capacities. In addition, an increasing number of security challenges, risks and threats that come from nature or as a consequence of technical and technological processes, directly affect several EU member states and neighboring countries, which makes mutual cooperation and coordination on prevention and elimination of consequences necessary. The Republic of Serbia became a member of the Mechanism in 2015. Besides Serbia, which is not a member of the EU, five other non-EU countries are part of the Mechanism, which shows that the activities of the Mechanism are not limited to the EU and that Serbia has all the Mechanism capacities available even before EU membership. The aim of this paper is to analyze all the capacities of the Mechanism that Serbia can use to develop its own resilience to disasters, as well as procedures for joint action in case of major natural and technical disasters. In addition, the goal is to explore the indirect benefits that Serbia may have on its path to joining the EU from cooperation with the Mechanism.

Osnovni okviri saradnje država Evropske unije u oblasti civilne zaštite

In order to improve mutual cooperation in the civil protection area, the member states of the European Union (EU) have established several frameworks. These frameworks are the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the European Civil Protection Pool and rescEU, which unites the means, capacities and funds of the EU intended for the functioning of civil protection. In this context, the EU simultaneously laid a solid foundation for more effective actions in emergency management, but also prevented the overlapping of jurisdictions. The goal of establishment of different frameworks in the field of civil protection and their unification is the formation of a single EU civil protection system that should operate uniformly throughout the EU territory. This does not imply the abolition of the national civil protection systems of the member states, but rather the formation of a supranational system that should provide support to the individual systems of the EU member states in emergency situations. The mentioned frameworks represent the best way to unify the capacities of all member states in the field of civil protection, and for a stronger joint response in case of emergency situations. The EU tries to act through the mentioned frameworks not only on the territory of its members, but also in a wider context.

Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing Techniques to Reduce the Impact of Natural Disasters in Smart Cities

Nowadays, many modern cities have become extremely vulnerable to natural disasters because of their increasing complexity and impacts of climate change. At the same time, the adaptation of scientific methods to the civil protection mechanism and the diffusion of their results to the authorities and citizens, remains a challenge and in some cases, is not achievable. The main objective of this study is to provide an overview of the potentialities of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing, to incorporate relative methods and disseminate their results in an efficient and comprehensive way. Through characteristic examples, the use of GIS and remote sensing techniques, to produce relative webtools and interactive maps, which can be subsequently integrated in smart cities’ geoportals easily accessible from smartphones and personal computers, is highlighted. Moreover, it is analyzed how that kind of geoportals, can be combined to provide an effective and completed management of the natural disasters and simultaneously to defuse the generated knowledge along with other relative viable information to the public.

Improving oxygen capacity at ITBP Referral Hospital during the second wave of COVID-19 infections in Greater Noida, India An operative targeted intervention.

Due to factors that still remain under debate, both social and virological, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to flare up in India, particularly in northern and western areas. This has led to an incidence of approximately 350,000 cases per day and a daily death toll of around 4,000 in the weeks between the 1st and 14th May 2021. The current pandemic is testing the adaptability of the oxygen distribution and consumption. Following India's request for support, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism coordinated the response agreed by EU Member States providing shipments of oxygen and equipment. In this scenario, our Emergency Medical Team (EMT)-2, based in Italy, organized a cargo and a twelve member team of technicians and medical professionals with the main objective of installing a novel source of oxygen. The installation of a PSA oxygen plant provided the ITBP hospital in Greater Noida, India, with a sustainable solution to combat oxygen shortage in less than 48 hours. The supply of oxygen could not be deemed a successful intervention without a proper plan to guarantee the rational use of the source so additional training was carried out. Our EMT were among the first responders in mitigating this public health crisis.

Polish Approach to Sharing Resources Deployable for the EU Civil Protection Mechanism

Poles are highly aware of the fact that Polish civil protection assets are being deployed abroad in order to assist other disaster- and crisis-stricken countries around the world. Such a type of urgent assistance provided from one country to another in an emergency response situation is regulated and organised by the European Union. Poland, as a state participating in the EU international system, is very active in sharing its civil protection assets, such as in the Beirut explosion case in Lebanon (2020), and during forest fires in Sweden (2018). Using its civil protection resources to assist other countries poses a question on the potential influence of such activities on the homeland’s internal security. Solving the problem has to be preceded by answering the following question — How is the process of international civil protection deployment organised in Poland? Responding to this question required utilising such methods as a review and analysis of literature sources on the European dimension of civil protection, EU legal regulations, statistics, reports as well as Polish standard operating procedures and internal regulations on the national level and was the key method applied in the research. Furthermore, semi-formal interviews with Polish and EU experts were done. The findings prove that operational planning in the researched area is well organised, which significantly diminishes the identified risk for internal security.

Fiscal Integration in an Experimental Union: How Path-Breaking Was the EU's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Fiscal Integration in an Experimental Union: How Path-Breaking Was the EU's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The EU Response to COVID-19: From Reactive Policies to Strategic Decision-Making.

The EU Response to COVID-19: From Reactive Policies to Strategic Decision-Making.

Development of a Rapid Risk and Impact Assessment Tool to Enhance Response to Environmental Emergencies in the Early Stages of a Disaster: A Tool Developed by the European Multiple Environmental Threats Emergency NETwork (EMETNET) Project

Every year, numerous environmental disasters and emergencies occur across the globe with far-reaching impacts on human health and the environment. The ability to rapidly assess an environmental emergency to mitigate potential risks and impacts is paramount. However, collating the necessary evidence in the early stages of an emergency to conduct a robust risk assessment is a major challenge. This article presents a methodology developed to help assess the risks and impacts during the early stages of such incidents, primarily to support the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism but also the wider global community in the response to environmental emergencies. An online rapid risk and impact assessment tool has also been developed to promote enhanced collaboration between experts who are working remotely, considering the impact of a disaster on the environment and public health in the short, medium, and long terms. The methodology developed can support the appropriate selection of experts and assets to be deployed to affected regions to ensure that potential public health and environmental risks and impacts are mitigated whenever possible. This methodology will aid defensible decision making, communication, planning, and risk management, and presents a harmonized understanding of the associated impacts of an environmental emergency.