The workshop and experts meeting entitled “Enhancing the European Disaster Response Capacity: Joint/Multi-National Modules”, that was organised by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection of the Hellenic Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection, under the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union, concluded today at the Zappeion Megaron.

More than 38 Civil Protection experts and CP National Authorities’ representatives from 25 European Union Member States, as well as the heads of all Greek-EU Modules participated in the proceedings.

The meeting report, as outlined by the participants, will be included by the Greek General Secretariat for Civil Protection in the Draft Conclusion that will be submitted to the Council (Civil Protection Group, PROCIV) as part of the legislative initiatives of the Greek Presidency.

Among the conclusions from the two-day workshop, it is worth highlighting the fact that the total of participating EU Member States declared their support for the Greek Presidency’s Priority on Civil Protection regarding the establishment of Multinational Civil Protection Modules. Furthermore, the MS Civil Protection Authorities’ representatives asked the Greek Presidency to enhance its efforts towards the Council (PROCIV) and towards the European Commission (DG-ECHO), so that the Multinational EU Civil Protection Modules are included in the European CP Mechanism training and operational exercises schedule.

This was the first workshop taking place after the entry into force (on January 1, 2014) of the new EU legislation on the European Civil Protection Mechanism.

The concept of the joint/multi-national modules will be tested for the first time on the field after the implementation of the new EU Civil Protection Legislation, in the "EU Prometheus 2014”, Full Scale Exercise (FSE), scheduled to take place in May/June 2014 in Athens.

This initiative of the Hellenic Presidency is being implemented with the cooperation and support of the General Secretariat of the Council and DG ECHO of the European Commission.