EU-RA Cooperation in Civil Protection: EU-RA Agreement (Reference)

• 10.24.2017, 19:34
•  Europe,  World,  Armenia,  Info

EU Neighbours

Recently the EU published the "Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement Between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and Their Member States, of the One Part, and the Republic of Armenia, of the Other Part" initialized with Armenia, the final signing of which is expected in the near future. "Armedia" IAA presents a series of materials on the most important issues that have become topics of hot discussions.

Later, if necessary, taking into consideration public interests, we will also address those issues that are not included in this series.

The agreement refers to the issues on the civil protection in Articles 109-112 of Part III. The overall size is 3 pages.

The agreement defines the new frameworks of the RA-EU cooperation among others also referring to the cooperation of the sides in the sphere of the civil protection.  In particular, the sides should develop and strengthen their cooperation on natural and man-made disasters. Cooperation shall be conducted while taking into account the interests of the Parties on the basis of equality and mutual benefit as well as the interdependence existing between the Parties and multilateral activities in the field. The sides shall, inter alia, exchange information and expertise and implement joint activities on a bilateral basis and/or within the framework of multilateral programs.

As the document states, the cooperation may cover the following objectives: exchanging and regularly updating contact details in order to ensure continuity of dialogue and in order to be able to contact each other on a 24-hour basis;  facilitating mutual assistance in case of major emergencies, as appropriate and subject to the availability of sufficient resources; exchanging on a 24-hour basis early warnings and updated information on large-scale emergencies affecting the European Union or the Republic of Armenia, including requests for and offers of assistance; exchanging information on the provision of assistance by Parties to third countries for emergencies where the EU Civil Protection Mechanism is activated; cooperating with regard to host-nation support when requesting or providing assistance; exchanging best practices and guidelines in the field of disaster prevention, preparedness and response; cooperating on disaster risk reduction by addressing, inter alia: institutional linkages and advocacy; information, education and communication; and best practices aimed at preventing or mitigating the impact of natural hazards; cooperating with a view to improving the knowledge base on disasters and on hazard and risk assessment for disaster management, etc.