TVLInk Europe, 50 years of protecting Europe's environment

Coping in a Crisis - Europe's Civil Protection Strategy

All European countries have a national civil protection plan in place to respond to disasters both at home and abroad. Historically, in the case of emergencies abroad, assistance from individual EU countries to states asking for help has tended to be bi-lateral.

But in 2001, the system changed when Europe’s approach to civil protection entered a brand new era. EU governments agreed to set up a mechanism that would allow them to pool their disaster relief resources, thereby creating one of the most comprehensive civil protection systems in the world. At the heart of this new, co-ordinated system is the Monitoring and Information Centre, from which global emergencies are managed.

Based in Brussels and staffed round the clock, MIC is on stand-by 365 days a year to put together teams of experts from all over the EU, who have trained together regularly, to rush to disaster zones within hours of a request for help. The system will never stop disasters happening. But when they do, Europe is on call to make sure that the right equipment and expertise reaches those in need as fast as possible.