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Committee of the Regions conference on natural disasters in cross-border areas
February 2017
Jointly organised by the Committee of the Regions and the MOT, this conference brought together more than 60 participants, on 3 February in Brussels. Its objective was to present best practice in the area of risk prevention and crisis management in cross-border zones: forest fires (ES-PT), flooding in the Nisa Euroregion (DE-CZ-PL), seismic risks in the Alps (FR-IT-CH), risks in mountainous regions (FR-ES) and more generally, civil protection (EGTC Euregio Senza Confini IT-AT).
These concrete examples have helped to identify obstacles to cooperation, such as the lack of familiarity with the institutional system and relevant players of the neighbouring country, the contradiction between the different States’ administrative procedures, the lack of equipment or of linguistic capacities to communicate. Among other solutions, the European Commission presented the financial tools available, as well as its overall approach concerning obstacles to cooperation (the “Cross-Border Review”).
The MOT sought to underline the necessity of strengthening multi-level dialogue on each border. The debate was placed within a European and global context with an Opinion of the Committee of the Regions and the new UN Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction under preparation.
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