Expert meeting - Brno
Thematic document
BackgroundAs Commission stated in its Annual Policy Strategy for 2009 the EU must continue to focus its attention on delivering policies of direct interest for citizens. Public security in case of an emergency definitely is such kind of topic. The EU should carry on its efforts to ensure the security of all EU citizens also through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information.
In the daily life the EU citizens may face disasters or major emergencies which threaten people's health or their lives and which can cause extensive material damage or damage to the environment. To be able to deal with such situation and not to hamper the work of rescue services, it is necessary to increase and deepen the knowledge of citizens, not only about potential danger, measures taken by intervening rescue services, but also about right procedures and behaviour of the population during the emergencies. Such information should be communicated not only in their country of origin, but throughout Europe and other regions. Furthermore successful communication, i.e. communication that makes an impact, requires a competitive message and the right communication channels. Citizens, who are well informed and who behave correctly, form one of the preconditions for the successful intervention of rescue services, and a good level of awareness also contributes to understanding the necessity of the measures that have to be taken.
Initiatives will be focused also on securing the health and life of citizens when exercise their right of free movement within the EU or even when they travel abroad. In this case awareness raising on the Community Mechanism for Civil protection among diplomatic personnel is a crucial issue. It is equally important to adopt measures to improve a safety of Rescue personnel when saving lives and property.
Main objectives
The outcomes from the seminar will be used to help to adopt the Council conclusions on awareness raising measures in June 2009. These are the main objectives to be discussed:
· To initiate the process of education and training of diplomatic personnel in the European Civil Protection Mechanism issue;
· To give Europe’s citizens the timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information they need to make informed choices about their safety and security;
· To raise awareness on the civil protection by communicating our messages in a transparent, understandable way to as broad an audience as possible;
· To raise public awareness on civil protection issues and encourage the development through the MIC of a common European way of communicating reliable and relevant information to the citizens in an emergency situation;
· To enhance security of rescue personnel during interventions.
Working groups
Group 1: Training of diplomatic personnel in the field of civil protection
- Awareness raising on the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection
- Education in the field of humanitarian operations
- Information sources – where to find up-to-date, relevant and reliable information
Group 2: Awareness-raising as regards prevention measures, public information and education aimed at the EU population
Types of communication depending on the phase of the emergency
- Information dissemination before the emergency, i.e. prevention and education
- Warning systems during the emergency
- Communication during and after the emergency
Basic target groups for the communication:
- Children and youth
- Adults
- Foreigners
Group 3: Awareness-raising as regards prevention measures and security of rescue personnel
- Creating the conditions for the development of knowledge based disaster prevention policies
- creating an inventory of information on disasters
- spreading best practices
- Improving the linking between actors throughout the disaster management cycle
- extending the lessons learnt to disaster prevention
- training in the area of disaster prevention
- reinforcing early warning tools
- Legal measures to improve a safety and security of Rescue personnel
- Measures aimed at employers to increase safety of personnel