Civil protection mechanism: improve preparedness and anticipate crises

Anticipation, monitoring and vulnerability mapping

Stronger rescEU capability

Response to health emergencies

Environment committee and public health committee MEPs want the next EU crisis prevention and response tool to do more to anticipate crises and support recovery.

On Thursday, the committees on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety and on Public Health adopted their position on the next iteration (2028-2034) of the EU’s civil protection mechanism (UCPM). This is the main EU tool for helping countries hit by disasters such as wildfires, floods or earthquakes. It pools voluntary resources and shares them with the country in need.

MEPs suggest increasing UCPM funding to €12.42 billion in current prices (€ 11 billion in 2025 constant prices) – up from €10 billion in the Commission proposal. They want to earmark funding from the mechanism so that 40% is spent on civil protection, 40% on health emergencies, and 20% as a flexibility amount.

Monitor and anticipate crises before they happen

MEPs on the Environment and Public Health committees want to strengthen monitoring and anticipation, so that EU institutions and local actors can prepare for crises rather than simply react to them. They suggest introducing vulnerability mapping, propose an integrated EU space service to be used to support public warning systems, and want to see support for forward-looking climate projections and climate risk assessments. MEPs propose a dedicated framework to coordinate civil-military collaboration in crisis response and envisage a stronger role for local and regional governments. They also want EU space capabilities to be used for early warning systems.

Shared EU response

MEPs agree that the new programme should strengthen joint capacity for emergency response (rescEU), including by introducing an aerial forest-fire-fighting fleet, to be available from 2028.

They also propose a recovery readiness framework to ensure that EU countries have clear mandates for different levels of government, technical and human capacity, and sufficient data available to coordinate the recovery process.

Highlighting the importance of volunteers as a first line of response, MEPs want to ensure that volunteers have a dedicated legal status providing for clear insurance coverage, recognition of qualifications, and exemptions from constraints relating to their day jobs.

Response to health emergencies

The new programme would also help EU countries fight serious cross-border health threats, for instance by stockpiling medical countermeasures (such as personal protective equipment and active pharmaceutical ingredients) and developing early warning and surveillance systems.

MEPs want to extend the scope of EU support to cross-border cooperation between specialised care centres, cross-border medical teams, medical surge capacity (such as analysis of current intensive care unit capacity) and patient transfers between member states in overload situations.

Quotes

Co-rapporteur Leire Pajín (S&D, Spain) said: “Wildfires and floods have shown how serious the global climate emergency is. We want to ensure that we are better prepared to face risks ranging from climate-related to health emergencies and hybrid threats. This means investing more in risk anticipation, prevention and preparedness, while ensuring that we have the capacity to respond and are ready to recover afterwards. It requires stronger cooperation between all levels of governance, as well as greater vulnerability awareness, with the promotion of a culture of preparedness among the general public.”

Co-rapporteur Aurelijus Veryga (ECR, Lithuania) said: “This report strengthens the EU’s ability to prepare for and respond to natural disasters, health emergencies and other major crises. Our proposals focus on stronger preparedness, prevention, early warning and coordination, including scenario planning and stress testing. They also strengthen healthcare resilience through intensive care unit surge capacity, cross-border medical teams, patient evacuation and medical stockpiling.”

Next steps

The position was approved by 61 votes to 9, and with 9 abstentions. It will be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole at an upcoming plenary session.