Prevention and preparedness projects in civil protection and marine pollution

EU Member States are facing a wide range of disasters every year, including floods, forest fires, earthquakes and various technological, radiological and environmental accidents. One way to protect the EU from the effects of disasters is to enhance prevention and preparedness in European civil protection. This Call for proposals will help to fund activities aimed at closer cooperation in prevention, preparedness and awareness-raising in civil protection and marine pollution .  Prevention means any action aimed at reducing risks or mitigating adverse consequences of disasters for people, the environment and property, including cultural heritage.  Prevention projects support and complement the efforts of participating states in the field of disaster prevention, focusing on areas where cooperation provides added value.Prevention projects also support the EU candidate countries and potential candidates not participating in the Mechanism  and the European Neighbourhood Policy countries  in the field of disaster prevention within the Union Civil Protection Mechanism and its participating states.Prevention priorities1. Actions on the economics of investing in disaster risk prevention, including costs and benefits of risk prevention measures, and the “risk-proofing" of public and/or private investments and strategies.2. Actions (guidelines, studies, workshops, and  exchange of experience) on the development of urban resilience strategies, including community and local-based disaster risk reduction actions and tools and guidelines for urban risk assessment, taking into account existing international initiatives in this field (e.g. UNISDR resilient cities campaign) and climate change adaptation strategies.3. Actions on the governance of risk management practices, including the integration of disaster risk assessments into the planning process and cross-border and cross-sectorial risk management practices for sustainable development.  Preparedness projectsCreate better prerequisites for, and improve preparedness, as well as enhance awareness of, civil protection and/or marine pollution professionals and volunteers. Support and complement the efforts of the participating states for the protection of citizens, environment and property in the event of natural and man-made disasters, technical, radiological or environmental incidents and dealing with the consequences of acts of terrorism and facilitate reinforced cooperation between the participating states in the field of preparedness in civil protection and/or marine pollution.Exchange of information, experience, good practice and knowledge aimed at improving the performance of parties involved in civil protection (both private and public professionals and volunteers.)Support the EU candidate countries and potential candidates not participating in the Mechanism  and European Neighbourhood Policy  countries in the field of disaster preparedness and enhance their cooperation within the Union Civil Protection Mechanism and its participating states. Priorities1. Actions aimed at improving cross border civil protection and marine pollution cooperation, including regional cooperation, regarding interoperability and preparedness for, direct response to and reducing impacts of natural and man-made disasters. Specific focus areas include better planning, preparing for CBRN events and mass evacuation. 2. Actions aimed at enhancing operational cooperation in the framework of the Mechanism, enabling countries to develop, exercise and register multinational assets.  3. Actions aimed at increasing the countries’ preparedness for reception of international assistance in the context of the EU Host Nation Support Guidelines .