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Civil protection

The dance hall becomes … a 24/24 PC for European civil protection

(BRUXELLES2) The room is brand new. And Claus Sorensen, Director General of DG Echo (Humanitarian Aid) and Civil Protection, is quite proud. In a few days, the thirty or so permanent staff and experts from the MIC - the civil protection unit of the European Commission - will take up their duties here. In what was an unused space on the 1st floor in the DG Fisheries and Taxud building and was even originally... a disused dance hall, this will become the European Emergency Response Center (CERU ).

The place is spacious, functional. Screens on the wall - able to display maps, diagrams, timing... - computers, telephones... everything needed for a crisis room is there. It is designed to operate 24 hours a day, 24 days a week. Night and weekend on-call duty is provided on site by 7 people. It is indeed a long time ago when in a small office of the DG Environment, a few people managed the MIC system or even the old crisis room in Beaulieu which was really a bit cramped. To be able to observe and monitor the situation, the specialists have satellite data from the European Copernicus and GMES natural disaster watch systems.

Main room, backup and "secret" room

In addition to the large room, two other small rooms - backup - allow either to follow the "main crisis", or to manage two mini-crises. A hypothesis that is not academic, as pointed out by Peter Billing, the deputy head of unit for urgent crisis response at DG ECHO. " In 2011, we had to simultaneously manage a major crisis in Libya, and two others the earthquake-tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in Van in Turkey”.

At the back are other rooms, quieter, intended for meetings, for logistics management - transport, training. A meeting room has been planned to accommodate experts from Member States as needed, as well as a large briefing room that can accommodate the media and television. Finally, a kitchen and even a sofa to be able to rest...

At the back of the device, an apparently innocuous room... Barely painted, raw walls, like a storage room. It is in fact a Faraday cage type room, meeting "top secret" standards, with armored door, allowing personnel to enter into communication with "protected" devices. Useful in case of terrorist alert.

Coordination with specialized rooms

The system will be served in ordinary times by MIC staff, who may be joined if necessary by specialized staff from DG Sanco (in the event of an epidemic or particular risk of an epidemic), DG Energy (in the event of radiological risk or on the electrical networks), DG Move (in the event of a problem with road, rail or air transport), or even EEAS staff such as staff from the EU General Staff for the "transport ". Agreements have been made to this effect with almost all the DGs (Sanco, Home, Move, Research, etc.) or are about to be.

With the EEAS, “discussions are in progress” explains Sorensen very diplomatically. According to our information, the "course" is slow... And the fact that the Civil Protection crisis unit is "the receptacle for all crises" as its promoters aspire and what is included in the project decision on the "solidarity clause"

An exercise today

Today, a full-scale exercise is taking place, implementing a flood in Moldova, on the borders of Romania. 2400 people evacuated, 1 dead, about 5000 people affected, 778 houses flooded, 106 of which were destroyed. 2 bridges under water like certain roads A village and half of another completely devastated and which will have to be rebuilt...

A real-life test tomorrow?

But tomorrow (May 16), it could be a natural, concrete disaster that will have to be managed. Civil Protection specialists are carefully monitoring the tropical cyclone Mahasen 13 which is approaching the Bay of Bengal at a speed of about 100 km/h and could cause great damage. 7,2 million people could be affected, some of them in Burma, are very vulnerable, because they already live in precarious shelters, having already been "displaced", refugees from the interior. The Rangoon government advised everyone to flee the area and even used the threat of using force on the recalcitrant. 160.000 people are particularly concerned.

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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