Citation
Nuthall, K. (2001), "EU proposes shipping emergency legislation", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 10 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2001.07310bab.005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
EU proposes shipping emergency legislation
EU proposes shipping emergency legislation
Legislative proposals are being prepared at the European Commission to ensure that civil protection units are better co-ordinated with their opposite numbers in other member states when they deal with large scale emergencies, such as the Erika oil spill in Brittany and the Danube cyanide disaster. Brussels will publish a Communication (White Paper) on improving co-operation this autumn and formal legal proposals will follow immediately. It will involve "the setting up of an EU mechanism to co-ordinate interventions of national civil protection teams inside and outside the European Union," said a Commission statement. The proposal will follow principles of mutual assistance, and allow early identification and mobilisation of operational teams, to tackle natural or technological disasters.
Immediate steps
Environment commissioner Margot Wallstrom said that it would focus on immediate steps that could be taken "to achieve improved co-ordination of intervention in cases of natural, technological and environmental disasters, including major marine pollution." First, commission and national officials will try to identify teams of relevant civil protection experts that could be organised differently and more effectively. Other initiatives to be proposed by Brussels to enhance the co-operation of these units, so that they "could be called on to intervene jointly during a disaster inside or outside the European Union" would include:
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common training for joint intervention;
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common exercises;
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secondments of members to another member state.
"The intention is to make communication between the civil protection administrations of the member states and of the commission easier, faster and more reliable," said a statement. Ms Wallstrom said: "With better cooperation, EU countries would be in a position to help each other, and countries outside the EU more efficiently, when national intervention is not enough."
Keith Nuthall
Lloyd's Casualty Week, Vol. 321 No. 13, 23 June 2000