Thank you for your crucial work on disaster prevention, preparedness, and response. Today you focused on two areas: what is working, and most importantly, how can we do better. So what is working?
It is clear that our EU Civil Protection Mechanism is a success story. It was created 25 years ago, and since then requests for assistance have gone up over ten times. This Mechanism has proven its value year after year as a powerful shield of protection, in Europe and across the world. This year alone, it has already been activated sixty times.
Last summer, we pre-positioned around 700 firefighters from 14 European countries in high-risk regions to support local teams against fires that burned more than one million hectares across the EU. This Mechanism also provides strong support to the people of Ukraine, a country living under daily attack. Europeans should be proud of this solidarity.
Today you also rightly focused on how we can do better to prepare for this more dangerous world. We find ourselves in a grey zone: we are not at war, but we are not at peace either. In recent years, we have lived through a series of wake-up calls: COVID-19, Russias war against Ukraine, and more frequent natural disasters due to climate change.
Hybrid and cyberattacks are growing. Drones fly over borders. Infrastructure is sabotaged. And our democracies are even being targeted. During the recent elections, Moldova suffered 14 million cyberattacks in a single day.
These threats reach into every corner of our societies: our power grids, banks, supply chains, raw materials, social media, even the phones in our pockets. This is what modern aggression looks like, so we must adapt.
That is precisely what we are doing with our first-ever EU Preparedness Strategy and our proposal for an upgraded Civil Protection Mechanism. We are building a new era of European security, where everyone knows what to do and acts together when a crisis hits. Less reacting, more anticipating and preparing.
Our Preparedness Strategy follows three simple principles. First an all-hazards approach: assessing every risk, natural or man-made, and how these risks cross sectors. Second, a whole-of-government approach: local, regional, national, and EU levels working in full coordination. And third, a whole of society effort: governments, industry, civil society, volunteers, the military, and citizens.
We are also changing how we build our policies, right from the start. We call it “preparedness by design”. Whenever we develop a new policy or investment, we make sure it achieves two things: makes Europe safer and holds up under stress. This is already part of our proposal for the next European budget. I count on your support to defend our level of ambition on preparedness.
Last July, we proposed to make our Union Civil Protection Mechanism even stronger to match todays challenges. This Regulation brings civil protection, health preparedness, and crisis anticipation into one tool. Less fragmentation and more coordination across sectors.
We are also assisting Member States to manage disasters by strengthening what already works. We are also making sure emergency response and health preparedness are fully connected. I count on you to keep the ambition high as you negotiate the UCPM/HER proposal, and I will be right by your side.
Your decision to dedicate a panel to climate change is the right one. It is urgently needed. The science is clear: within the next decade, global temperatures will likely pass 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. We dont need a crystal ball to see what a world beyond 1.5° Celsius looks like. We are already living it.
Just last month, Hurricane Melissa, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in Jamaica, and the second most intense in the Atlantic, devastated the Caribbean. It claimed far too many lives and erased years of development. Destructive storms and floods recently hit South and Southeast Asia, causing terrible loss of life, displacement, and damage in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The list goes on.
Mitigation alone is no longer enough. Adaptation, prevention, and resilience must now be at the heart of our response. We can be proud that our Civil Protection Mechanism and humanitarian aid reduce suffering and save lives, both at home and in places trembling with human misery, like Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, and Bangladesh.
But we need to go further on prevention and adaptation, and we need to do it across all sectors.
Last Friday, I was in Bremen, in Germany. I visited a local community right next to the River Weser, where storm floods are becoming more frequent due to climate change. This means they now have to evacuate more often.
We cannot wait for the next storm with our crossed arms. That is why our Preparedness Strategy includes a new Climate Adaptation policy. I look forward to working closely with Commissioner Hoekstra on this.
Helping countries and communities build climate resilience and prepare for disasters is not only solidarity. It is also a strategic investment in security and stability.
Preparedness is no longer a niche topic for experts only. It concerns all of us — governments, businesses, the military, and every citizen. We all have a part to play because when everyone is prepared, everyone is safer, and our whole society becomes stronger.
Your expertise and your commitment are essential to keeping people safe across our Union. You can count on me, and I know we can count on you. Together we are building a Europe that is ready for whatever comes next.
