The overall objective is to improve civil protection preparedness and response to all kinds of disasters inside the Member States/Participating States of the Mechanism by providing a testing environment and a learning opportunity for all actors involved in civil protection assistance interventions: a full-scale exercise.

Themes & priorities:

The scenario for the exercises should build on risk assessments.

Examples, but not exclusively, extreme weather, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, industrial risk, critical infrastructure disruption, marine pollution, epidemic/health risk, CBRN, and multi-sectorial emergencies.

In addition to the main theme, cross-cutting issues such as gender, age, persons with disabilities, human rights, environmental sustainability, green economic practices, digitalisation, resilience in infrastructure, the protection of cultural heritage, etc. are encouraged to be considered and included as relevant.

Proposals that can be funded:

The beneficiaries will design, plan, conduct and self-evaluate one full-scale exercise project in Member States.

The full-scale exercise project must include the following elements and activities (see section 2.3: minimun requirements):

• Realistic and challenging scenario linked to risk assessments
• Management and control structures for the project and for the conduct of the exercises
• Activation of the Mechanism
• Deployment of an EU Civil Protection Team
• Deployment of assets and teams of the European Civil Protection Pool (ECPP)
• Use of the Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS)
• Information exchange between the affected country(ies), participating states and the ERCC
• The involvement of relevant national operational structures
• EU Host Nation Support guidelines
• EU observers
• Evaluation, lessons learned and way forward
• EU visibility

This call supports exercise projects aiming to design, plan, prepare, implement, conduct and evaluate different civil protection activities including a full-scale exercise in a multi-national scenario as the main event of the project. The scenario should simulate the situation and conditions of all types of disasters calling for the activation of the Mechanism, including the main theme and cross-cutting issues.

The overall objective of the Mechanism is to strengthen the cooperation among Member States/Participating States in the field of civil protection in order to facilitate coordination to improve the effectiveness of the system for preventing, preparing for, and responding to natural and man-made disasters. Any country in the world overwhelmed by a disaster can call on the Mechanism for help. By pooling the civil protection capabilities of the Member States/Participating States, the Mechanism can ensure better protection primarily of people, but also of the natural and cultural environment and of property.

In addition to the UCPM-2024-KAPP, direct grants without calls for proposals for disaster risk management actions –‘Technical Assistance for Disaster Risk Management’- will be launched simultaneously. They will address national disaster risk management authorities of the EU Member and UCPM Participating States. An invitation to submit a proposal will be sent to the above mentioned authorities.

Full background information about European civil protection activities is available at http://ec.europa.eu/echo/what/civil-protection_en.