EU and World Bank create new facility to strengthen capacity of civil protection in Europe

With initial funding of €6 million in 2024, the EU will help civil protection authorities of EU Member States, EU Civil Protection Mechanism Participating States, and Georgia and Kosovo* to bolster their capacity to achieve the Disaster Resilience Goals.

Today, the European Commission launches a new financial support instrument targeting national civil protection authorities to begin with for a three years pilot phase to enhance disaster prevention and preparedness in the EU and beyond.

The Technical Assistance Financing Facility for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness supports projects, studies and trainings in disaster and climate resilience and promotes the sharing of knowledge among countries on disaster risk management. The World Bank will implement the activities with financing from the European Commission.

As a result of this financing tool, civil protection authorities will increase their technical capacity to prevent disasters and will be better equipped when a disaster strikes.

Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management said: “When a year ago, we adopted the Disaster Resilience Goals, our aim was to ensure that we are better prepared for future disasters. With this new facility, we want to leverage global best practices and technical expertise to help civil protection authorities achieve our ambitious goals, which will ultimately benefit the people who can rely on a stronger and better system when they need help.”

Background

Disaster resilience is gaining importance as natural disasters are becoming more and more frequent and severe. Between 1980 and 2020, natural hazards affected nearly 50 million people in the EU and caused on average an economic loss of €12 billion per year.

The Technical Assistance Financing Facility for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness (TAFF) is fully funded by the European Union. TAFF is managed by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery and its activities are implemented by the World Bank in coordination with the European Commission.

TAFF is part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). It provides national civil protection and disaster risk management authorities with the technical assistance needed for preparing investments, capacity building and for strengthening their institutional and policy framework.

The UCPM aims to strengthen cooperation between the 27 EU countries and 10 Participating States (Iceland, Norway, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine) on civil protection to improve prevention, preparedness, and response to disasters.

In February 2023, the European Commission adopted a Recommendation and a Communication to establish common goals to boost disaster resilience in the area of civil protection. The 5 common goals are anticipate, prepare, alert, respond and secure. The European disaster resilience goals aim to improve the capacity of the EU, its Member States and Participating States to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to anticipate and withstand the effects of future major disasters and emergencies.

_{*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.}