Civil Protection in Europe: Towards a Unified Command System? Update on knowledge-sharing work and future actions

Abstract

In the context of climate change, increasing disaster severity and extension, the paper suggests to DGECHO, agency managing the European civil protection mechanism, an improvement for joint operations command-and-control practices. It constitutes an update of Monet et al. (2020) paper, enhancing the work progresses in terms of analysis, applicability, monitoring and training.

In this perspective, the work of the authors is completely dedicated to the improvement of interoperability when different (national) civil protection forces work together, to respond to emergencies or disasters. Building on theoretical comparative studies, this opinion paper now relies on an interoperability monitoring tool and consolidates the ways on defining the future for an “European Command System”, proposing innovative operational practices by associating knowledge exchange and operational training.

Actually, the presentation will depict how to organize a training strategy at European level, alternating international and regional courses, to pave the way for future harmonization.