USAR.CZ / Union Civil Protection Mechanism

Decision No. 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and the Council on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism is basic EU document in the field of Civil Protection. This legislative tool provides closer cooperation of the Participating States and better coordination and reaction to disasters inside as well as outside of the EU. Its main aim is to support, coordinate and complement activities of the Participating States in the field of Civil Protection and to improve the effectiveness of systems in the field of prevention, preparedness and response to the natural and man-made disasters. Currently the Union Civil Protection Mechanism applies to 28 Member States of the EU, Montenegro, Iceland, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Turkey. The use of some of its measures is also made available to other candidate countries and potential candidates and countries that are part of the European Neighbourhood Policy. 

The Union Civil Protection Mechanism has a number of its own tools available to provide an assistance to affected State, if the assistance is requested. This includes, in particular, the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) and the Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS). Through these two tools it is possible to coordinate and communicate the requested and offered assistance while solving its transportation.

CECIS primarily links the relevant authorities and contact points in Participating States and the ERCC (in case of the Czech Republic, the contact point is operational and information centre of DG FRS CR). It also contains databases with information about the registration and availability of Participating States' resources voluntarily allocated to disaster response. It also enables to communicate and disseminate the experience gained from civil protection interventions.

ERCC is fully operational 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Its key tasks are to:

• operate as EU Disaster Monitoring and Coordination Platform and as a communication centre for Participating States, affected states and field workers;;
• develop and disseminate information products (daily information on disasters around the world, satellite maps, etc.);
• support coordination between civil protection operations and humanitarian aid operations.

In order to improve the planning of operations and to strengthen the availability of key resources, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism introduced the so-called European Emergency Response Capacities (EERC). The EERC are composed of Member States' voluntary resources and include civil protection modules, a number of specialized teams, expert advisory missions, material or supplies for relief needed to mitigate the immediate consequences of disasters (generators, water pumps, etc.).

The civil protection modules are currently considered as the main operative tool of the EERC. They are consisted of resources of one or number of Participating States and they are able to proceed predefined response tasks in accordance with established international guidelines, therefore they can: 

• be deployed in very short term from the receiving the request of assistance through the ERCC;
• work individually and self-sufficiently for scheduled time period.

At the same time, these modules are able to cooperate with other Union bodies or with international organizations (especially the UN).

Currently the Czech Republic offers these modules through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism:

• 2x medium urban search and rescue (MUSAR)
• 1x heavy urban search and rescue (HUSAR)
• 1x high capacity pumping (HCP)
• 1x chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear detection and sampling (CBRNDET)
• 1x flood rescue using boats (FRB)
• 1x advanced medical post (AMP)

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