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Union Civil Protection Mechanism 2021-2027

In “A Stronger Europe in the World”

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For a brief overview of the key points of the adopted text and its significance for the citizen, please see the corresponding summary note.

The Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) was established in 2001 to improve the EU response to natural and man-made disasters inside and outside Europe. The aim is to increase the cooperation between the Union and the UCPM Participating States and to facilitate coordination in the field of civil protection. Currently, the Mechanism includes 34 countries.

In the area of civil protection, the main responsibility for protecting citizens and the environment lies on the Member States. The EU coordinates, supports and complements national actions related to risk prevention, preparedness for, and response to disasters.

The UCPM is governed by Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, which was amended by Decision (EU) 2019/420 of 13 March 2019 with the aim to:

  • strengthen the Union response capacities by creating a common European reserve of resources, called rescEU
  • further develop the mutual assistance consisting of pre-committed capacities, offered by the Member States under the European Civil Protection Pool (ECPP), by setting up higher or new EU co-financing
  • improve the prevention and preparedness by providing support to Member States to enhance their disaster risk management
  • create a Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network, bringing together relevant civil protection actors and centres of excellence, universities and researchers

In order to provide the necessary budgetary resources to support an upgraded UCPM for the period 2021-2027, the Commission put forward on 7 March 2019 a proposal for a decision amending Decision No 1313/2013/EU, in particular its Article 19. The financial envelope set out in this article should be updated and replaced by the new figures proposed for the 2021-2027 multi-annual financial framework. Therefore, €1400 million (in current prices) would be allocated for implementing the Mechanism for that period. This amount is adapted to a Union of 27 Member States. The Commission also proposes to delete Annex I, which sets up the relative percentages for the distribution of the overall financial envelope among the three pillars of the UCPM: prevention, preparedness and response, considering that this approach limits the flexibility of the Mechanism.

Within the European Parliament, the proposal has been assigned to the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, rapporteur Nikos Androulakis (S&D, Greece).

In mid-November 2019 the Council agreed a partial general approach extending the possibility to adopt multi-annual work programmes to all activities under the UCPM; reinforcing the operational costs for capacities registered in the ECPP when deployed outside the Union; better linking the civil protection authorities to the Galileo Satellite system to alert citizens in emergency situations. However, budget-related and horizontal issues which are currently being discussed as part of the negotiations on the EU's next MFF fall outside the scope of this agreement.

In December, the EP rapporteur issued his draft report amending the Commission’s proposal. On 5 March 2020 the ENVI Committee adopted the legislative report. It underlines that the funding for 2021-2027 should be at least equal to the amount of €1400 million as initially proposed by the Commission; reinstates Annex I; redistributes the funding, allocating a significantly larger amount to preparedness, including the purchase of rescEU assets; empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts to amend Annex I so as to adjust each of the figures by more than 10 percentage points, within the available budgetary allocations.

The Committee report had to be voted in plenary in March 2020, but the coronavirus crisis shook up the dynamics of legislative process. The upgraded UCPM had to be adapted to address the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. In its resolution of 17 April 2020 on EU coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, the EP called on the Commission to strengthen RescEU instrument to ensure a common, coordinated and effective response at EU level; to enhance the EU disaster risk management, preparedness and prevention to common equipment, materials and medicines stocks; to strengthen the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in order to facilitate the joint repatriation of EU citizens.

On 27 May 2020, the Commission proposed:

  • to enhance UCPM/rescEU capacities in order to equip the EU to prepare for and respond to large-scale emergencies, including those with a medical component
  • to expand rescEU with the aim to develop and acquire stockpile capacity and relevant dispatching capacity
  • to make rescEU more flexible, including budgetary and operational flexibility and streamlining, to increase the Union’s capacity to act together at EU level
  • to upgrade the UCPM in order to endow the Union with capacities and logistical infrastructure that can challenge different types of emergency

For these ends, the Commission proposes to increase the financial allocation under the 2021-2027 MFF to €3.1 billion, financing investments in emergency response infrastructure, transport capacity and emergency support teams.

On 2 June 2020, the Commission put forward a new proposal amending Decision No 1313/2013/EU in order to provide better crisis and emergency support at EU level. (See the file on the New UCPM 2021-2027)

The withdrawal of the proposal from 7 March 2019 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union in May 2022.

References:

Further reading:

Author: Dessislava Yougova, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu

As of 15/12/2024.