Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-13-Speech-2-415"
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"en.20071113.37.2-415"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission, and I personally, wish to thank the rapporteur, Mr Vakalis, for this extremely informative and valuable report.
Earthquakes are not easy to deal with. There needs to be adequate preparation and sufficient measures must be taken in advance so that we can cope with the most serious effects.
2007 was an important year for developing ways of dealing with natural disasters at EU level. Not only did we have the largest single mobilisation of the EU civil protection mechanism to fight the Greek forest fires, but two new legislative measures on civil protection were adopted: the financial instrument for civil protection, and a revised European civil protection mechanism. In addition, as announced in September and following the European Parliament’s resolution on forest fires and floods, the Commission is to launch a special initiative to strengthen the EU’s capacity to deal with disasters.
A rapid and effective response to emergencies is obviously of crucial importance, particularly for risks such as earthquakes, which are practically impossible to foresee. However, even when unforeseen events occur, an effective response can and must be supplemented by suitable preventive measures, such as early warning, to limit potential damage and enable the situation to be brought under control.
For these reasons, in 2008 the Commission will develop a complete initiative to improve disaster prevention generally.
After response and prevention, the third stage in the management of disasters such as earthquakes is restoration. In this context, I welcome Parliament’s call for the Council to promote the proposal on the Solidarity Fund.
The financial instrument for civil protection provides a long-term funding framework for civil protection such as earthquake response operations. The new regulation has almost doubled the funds available. The Commission also has special plans for dealing with earthquake-related issues and, thanks to the capital allocated by the European Parliament to the EU budget in 2006, the Commission is already supporting the STEP project. This project is being implemented through a partnership between Italy, Portugal and Germany and aims to develop a mobile assessment and administration unit for earthquake management. The Commission endorses the appeal by the rapporteur, Mr Vakalis, for better coordination. The events of last summer have shown that although the EU civil protection response was impressive, there is still room for improvement. On the basis of the recommendations of the Barnier report, the Commission is now developing ready-formed civil protection units composed of disaster response experts that can be mobilised instantly.
Lastly, the rapporteur, Mr Vakalis, underlines the importance of cooperation with third countries. The civil protection mechanism allows cooperation with third countries and with the Euromed programme in the prevention, mitigation and management of natural and man-made disasters and is another good example of cooperation in this sector."@en1
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