Network of European Hubs for Civil Protection and Crisis Management

Europe faces an increase in dramatic impacts of intense and unpredictable natural disasters. Climate change is amplifying these impacts of extreme weather events. In a shared risk landscape, natural disasters do not respect national borders and require increased cross-border collaboration. This Preparatory Action ‘European Hubs for Civil Protection and Crisis Management’ was adopted by the European Parliament to support the disaster preparedness in the European Union in the framework of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) and to better tackle the new challenges posed by the changing risk landscape in Europe. The pilot project was issued by the European Commission (DG ECHO).

The objective of the project was to formulate a concept and a model for European hubs for civil protection and disaster management. This project did not just entail research but within the scope of the project, concrete activities, such as trainings, workshops and conferences were organised to test the feasibility and adequacy of the proposed concept. Based on the experiences of the pilot hub (focusing on wildfires), a generic hub-model was proposed to provide guidance for potential other future initiatives of the UCPM Participating States. The final report can be found here.

This project was implemented together with Fraunhofer INT, ARTTIC, The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS), Emergency Services Academy Finland (ESAF), Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), Corpo AIB Piemonte (AIB), ECASC Valabre, Center for Security Studies (KEMEA) and the Agency for Integrated management of Rural Fires (AGIF). Advisors to the consortium were the European Forest Institute (EFI) and Pau Costa Foundation (PCF).