European Council Conclusions,   March 22, 2024
CO EUR 6,   CONCL 2

VIII. PREPAREDNESS AND CRISIS RESPONSE
The European Council underlines the imperative need for enhanced and coordinated
military and civilian preparedness and strategic crisis management in the context of the
evolving threat landscape. It invites the Council to take work forward and the
Commission together with the High Representative to propose actions to strengthen
preparedness and crisis response at EU level in an all-hazards and whole-of-society
approach, taking into account Member States’ responsibilities and competences, with a
view to a future preparedness strategy.

Source:
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/70880/euco-conclusions-2122032024.pdf#page=15    

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Remarks:

Note the requirement of

• propose actions to strengthen preparedness and crisis response at EU level in an all-hazards and whole-of-society approach
• with a view to a future preparedness strategy

 The “all-of-society” approach is a basic requirement (not a suggestion) in the text of the UN Sendai Framework (since 8 years), so “strengthening” is equivalent as to”consider”  filling a real gap.

Since “all-of-society” is a real complex issue (and does not only comprize first responders organization plus a selected few) it will be interesting to see the follow-up “strategies”.

 “Preparedness Strategy” of course is an essential issue, but sorry to state that all the other phases of the Disaster Management Cycle would need their own strategy, too.

“future” preparedness strategy leaves the timespan rather open. I am missing the term “urgent” which would reflect the will of victims and their relatives as well as the expectation of all caretaker organizations

https://www.horst-kremers.de/20231110.pdf#page=8

From my participation in the recent “Crisis Prevention” conference, Berlin, I meanwhile see a real increase of not only “digital” but “Information Management”-related awareness and several projects that have the potential to lead to RISK Information Management “Lighthouse” developmets.

[DE]  https://crisis-prevention.de/veranstaltungen/programm.html  

Still we need to keep arguing for the appropriate Information Management Strategy that together with proposal of roadmap leads the way to the common holistic view that knits together project experience in a synergetic way for implementation.

Horst Kremers