In this plan, the EC recommends that each citizen should proactively reserve enough food and essential items for at least 72 hours. This proposal aims to help people ensure their own safety when facing emergency situations such as war, cyber attacks, pandemics or natural disasters.
The strategy, chaired by Vice Chairman of the Roxana Minzatu Committee, stressed that Europe cannot continue to remain passive and needs to rapidly improve response capacity in all areas.
Ms. Minzatu said that EC's main message is "repair your roofs while it's still sunny", and admitted that many people still don't know how to react properly when disasters occur.
The EC's 17-page draft outlines a series of threats that Europe could face, from armed conflict, cyber attacks, extreme natural disasters to public health crises. The plan proposes to build a common cybersecurity warning system for the entire bloc, enhance cooperation with NATO, and expand reserves of medicines, food, raw materials and essential equipment.
The EC is also considering establishing a crisis coordination center at the Union level to monitor, support and coordinate response in emergency situations that each member country cannot respond to on its own.
In addition, this agency called for increased public-private cooperation in strategic areas such as cybersecurity and education, encouraged businesses to participate in sharing information and supported training on crisis management skills.
In terms of finance, the EC proposes to review the emergency response mechanism to ensure flexibility in budget allocation. Crise preparation will also be integrated into the EU's external investments, especially in climate adaptation programs in partner countries.
The European Commission is also considering the promulgation of a new law on long-term response preparation, setting specific standards and targets to ensure essential social functions are always protected in all situations.
In the list of 60 specific actions expected to be implemented in the next two years, the EC pays special attention to fake news monitoring, assessing the readiness of the financial system and integrating crisis response content into the education program at schools. These measures are all planned to be implemented this year.
