The EU Commission and EU foreign policy chief launched a ‘Preparedness Union Strategy’ to support Member States and enhance Europe’s capability to prevent and respond to emerging threats.
Europe is facing increasingly complex crises and challenges, from growing geopolitical tensions and conflicts, hybrid and cybersecurity threats, foreign information manipulation and interference to climate change and increasing natural disasters.
“New realities require a new level of preparedness in Europe,” said Commission president Ursula von der Leyen: “Our citizens, our Member States, and our businesses need the right tools to act both to prevent crises and to react swiftly when a disaster hits. Families living in flood zones should know what to do when the waters rise. Early warning systems can prevent regions hit by wildfires from losing precious time.”
The Strategy includes 30 key actions and a detailed Action Plan to advance the Preparedness Union’s objectives, as well as developing a ‘preparedness by design culture’ across all EU policies.
Key objectives and actions of the Strategy include:
Protecting Europe’s Essential Societal Functions:
- Develop minimum preparedness criteria for essential services such as hospitals, schools, transport, and telecommunications.
- Enhance the stockpiling of critical equipment and materials.
- Enhance climate adaptation and availability of critical natural resources such as water.
Promoting Population Preparedness:
- Encourage the public to adopt practical measures, such as maintaining essential supplies for a minimum of 72 hours in emergencies.
- Integrate preparedness lessons into school curricula and introduce an EU Preparedness Day.
Enhancing Crisis Response Coordination:
- Establish an EU Crisis Hub to improve integration among existing EU crisis structures.
Strengthening Civil-Military Cooperation:
- Conduct regular EU-wide preparedness exercises, uniting armed forces, civil protection, police, security, healthcare workers, and firefighters.
- Facilitate dual-use investments.
Bolstering Foresight and Anticipation Capabilities:
- Develop a comprehensive risk and threat assessment at EU level, helping prevent crises such as natural disasters or hybrid threats.
Increasing Public-Private Cooperation:
- Create a public-private Preparedness Taskforce.
- Formulate emergency protocols with businesses to ensure rapid availability of essential materials, goods, and services, and secure critical production lines.
Enhancing Cooperation with External Partners:
- Work with strategic partners like NATO on military mobility, climate and security, emerging technologies, cyber, space, and the defence industry.
Joint Communication on Preparedness Union Strategy
Annex of the Joint Communication on Preparedness Union Strategy
