Council Decision No 2007/162/EC, Euratom, adopted on 5 March 2007, establishes a Civil Protection Financial Instrument. This instrument aims at supporting and complementing the efforts of Member States for the protection, primarily of people, but also of the environment and property, including cultural heritage, in the event of natural and man-made disasters, acts of terrorism and technological, radiological or environmental accidents. Furthermore, it intends to facilitate reinforced co-operation between the Member States in the field of civil protection.
The Civil Protection Financial Instrument covers three main aspects of civil protection activities: prevention, preparedness and response. The new financial instrument will cover:
- response and preparedness actions covered by the EU’s civil protection mechanism;
- actions already covered by the 2000-2006 civil protection action programme, such as prevention (study of the causes of disasters, forecasting, public information) and preparedness (detection, training, networking, exercises, mobilisation of expertise) within the EU;
- new areas such as additional transport in response actions under the civil protection mechanism.
The financial envelope allocated to the instrument under the EU’s 2007-13 financial framework amounts to €189.8 million. Indicative annual amounts of €20 million are available for actions within the EU and €8 million for actions in third countries.
The financial instrument and the mechanism
The civil protection financial instrument will cover the financial aspects the preparedness and response actions covered by the Community mechanism for civil protection. In terms of response, this will cover the requirements of the MIC to fulfil its operational functions, as well as preparedness actions such as training, exercises and exchange of experts.
2008 Annual Work Programme for grants and procurement – civil protection.
Supplement to the 2008 Annual Work Programme- civil protection
2009 Annual Work Programme – Civil Protection
Transport of civil protection assistance
The Civil Protection Financial Instrument allows participating states to request the European Commission to provide support and co-financing for the transport of civil protection assistance to a country affected by an emergency, subject to certain conditions. Commission Decision 2007/606/EC, Euratom lays down the relevant implementing rules. The Financial Instrument entrusts the Commission with new responsibilities to support:
* the sharing or pooling of participating states’ transport assets made available on a voluntary basis,
* the identification of transport assets available on the commercial market or from any other sources and
* the use of Community funding to hire the necessary transport assets.
The Financial Instrument allows Community financing to be used only when all other options available to participating states are exhausted and when the pooling or sharing of transport resources between participating states have not yielded results. Only transport operations which cover vital needs and are complementary to the overall EC humanitarian assistance are considered eligible for Community financing. Participating states requesting financial support for the transport of their assistance shall reimburse at least 50% of the Community funds received within 180 days of the intervention.
The Decision provides for detailed rules for implementing these provisions. The European Commission can give financial support, at the request of the participating states, either through direct grants or through the provision of a transport service which will be contracted through a broker. The Annex to the Decision sets out what practical information should be provided between the participating States and the Commission for a given transport request.
The adoption of this Decision by the Commission completes the legal framework which will allow the Commission to make an important contribution to the reduction of the deficit in transport resources which has impaired the functioning of the Community civil protection Mechanism in the past. It will allow the Commission to support participating States in their expression of European solidarity with those affected by disasters both inside and outside the EU.
Prevention and other preparedness actions
The financial instrument however finances another array of actions dealing with prevention and preparedness. Types of actions that previously used to be covered by the Action programme will now be covered through the financial instrument.
Read more:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/civil/prote/finance.htm