COMMON SESSION OF EU MACRO-REGIONAL STRATEGIES AT THE EUROPEAN CIVIL PROTECTION FORUM
European Civil Protection Forum 2018 – „Scaling up prevention – Transnational cooperation for effective disaster risk management”
The 6th European Civil Protection Forum, organised under the central theme of “Civil Protection in a Changing Risk Landscape”, took place on 5 and 6 March 2018 in Brussels. The event gathered 900 representatives from the European civil protection community, countries of the European Neighbourhood, first-line responders, academia, international organisations, NGOs, and European institutions to discuss the current developments in the Union Civil Protection Mechanism framework and put forward new ideas for tackling common challenges.
EU Strategy for the Danube Region PA5 – Environmental Risks priority area Hungarian coordination and the coordinators for Policy Area Secure in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region organized a thematic break-out session in the topic of transnational cooperation for effective disaster risk management during the first day of the European Civil Protection Forum 2018 event.
The session included a discussion on the goals and activities that could improve macro-regional and transnational cooperation for effective disaster risk management. The speakers presented information on the four EU macro-regional strategies that can stimulate such a benchmarking discussion and additionally the hazard and consequences of earthquakes were incorporated.
The main objectives were to highlight the added value of macro-regional strategies and how they can facilitate the development of multi-level, cross-sectoral/transnational partnerships and also to point out that the MRSs are efficient platforms to collaborate with non-EU countries in order to solve common challenges mutually.
EUSDR PA5 Hungarian coordinator presented the joint developments in the Danube Basin via the topics of improvement of flood forecasting, management of icy floods and establishment of an international network of flood protection education. Furthermore the Solotvyno salt mine (UKR) case study was introduced. It is a potentially hazardous abandoned salt mine endangering the water quality of the Tisza River. The EU Scoping and Advisory Mission carried out in 2016 resulted in an EU Civil Protection Mechanism Risk Assessment Report with the support of EUSDR in a neighbourhood country.
As reaction to the given information a question was raised from the audience about what could be a potential force that keeps macro-regional cooperation together. The PA5 representative in his reply denoted the basin-characteristic of the EUSDR as a major potency and additionally the willingness of the non-EU countries – based on their capacities – to follow the EU Directives regulations (e.g. Flood Directive) which provides mutual interest and consistency in the region.
