The Commission and High Representative have launched the Preparedness Union Strategy, which aims to support Member States and enhance Europe's capability to prevent and respond to emerging threats.
The European Union is facing increasingly complex crises and challenges that cannot be ignored. From growing geopolitical tensions and conflicts, hybrid and cybersecurity threats, foreign information manipulation and interference, to climate change and increasing natural disasters, the EU needs to be ready to protect its citizens and the key societal functions that are crucial for democracy and daily life.
The Strategy outlines 30 key actions alongside a detailed Action Plan to strengthen Europe’s resilience. It also promotes a ‘preparedness by design’ culture across all EU policies, embedding crisis readiness at every level.
President Ursula von der Leyen on the Strategy: “New realities require a new level of preparedness in Europe. Our citizens, our Member States, and our businesses need the right tools to act both to prevent crises and to react swiftly when a disaster hits. Families living in flood zones should know what to do when the waters rise. Early warning systems can prevent regions hit by wildfires from losing precious time. Europe stands ready to support Member States and trusted partners in the neighbourhood to save lives and livelihoods.”
Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, Hadja Lahbib shared: "Preparedness must be woven into the fabric of our societies — everyone has a role to play. Today’s threats are fast, complex, and interconnected; our response must be more proactive, more integrated, and more coordinated at European level. By harnessing the energy of our institutions, businesses, and citizens, we can build resilience and ensure Europe emerges stronger from crises."
Key objectives and actions of the Strategy include:
- Protecting Europe's Essential Societal Functions: this involves developing minimum preparedness criteria for essential services such as hospitals, schools, transport, and telecommunications. It also includes enhancing the stockpiling of critical equipment and materials as well as the availability of critical natural resources such as water.
- Promoting Population Preparedness by encouraging the public to adopt practical measures, such as maintaining essential supplies for a minimum of 72 hours in emergencies. This also involves the integration of preparedness lessons into school curricula and the introduction of an EU Preparedness Day.
- Enhancing Crisis Response Coordination through the establishment of an EU Crisis Hub to improve integration among existing EU crisis structures.
- Strengthening Civil-Military Cooperation by uniting armed forces, civil protection, police, security, healthcare workers, and firefighters.
- Bolstering Foresight and Anticipation Capabilities through the development of a comprehensive risk and threat assessment at EU level, helping prevent crises such as natural disasters or hybrid threats.
- Increasing Public-Private Cooperation, which includes formulating emergency protocols with businesses to ensure rapid availability of essential materials, goods, and services, and secure critical production lines.
- Enhancing Cooperation with External Partners, such as NATO, on military mobility, climate and security, emerging technologies, cyber, space, and the defence industry.
The Strategy takes an integrated all-hazards approach, uniting all levels of government (local, regional, national, and EU). It also follows a whole-of-society approach, bringing together citizens, communities, civil society, businesses, social partners, and the scientific and academic communities to strengthen collective preparedness and response.
DMX monitors all news related to major developments in the European Union - follow our LinkedIn page to stay up to date with the latest news.
