Second Joint Exercise for Emergency Coordination

(B2 - archive) A second joint exercise to test the EU arrangements for coordination in emergency and crisis situations in Brussels was “ successfully conducted on September 13 and 14, announces the Council of the EU. The aim was to verify the mechanisms for rapid reaction to a crisis, at European level, and the capacity of the Council and the Commission to jointly support the response efforts of the Member States.

An exercise in simultaneous terrorist attacks

The exercise was based on a fictitious scenario: simultaneous terrorist attacks in several Member States perpetrated by a single bio-agent. The chosen theme corresponds to one of the priorities of the Portuguese presidency (strengthening national and European actions to prevent bioterrorism). The exercise's code name, CCAEX07, tested for the first time the role of the Permanent Representatives of the Member States (COREPER) in the context of the European coordination mechanism. COREPER was responsible for studying and deciding on possible responses at European level. He will do a preliminary evaluation of CCAEX07 on September 19 and will be presented with a draft evaluation report one month later.

One year ago…

The Justice and Home Affairs Council of June 1, 2006 approved a mechanism for coordination in crisis situations. This mechanism is a platform for the exchange of information and the coordination of actions for the Permanent Representatives of the Member States in Brussels, in the context of a crisis or emergency situation whose nature is deemed serious enough to trigger an exceptional response from the Member States in close cooperation with each other.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)