The 4th Consortium Meeting of the EU-China Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Project will be hosted by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection of Greece (GSCP, the national CP authority) in its headquarters in Athens on 14 January 2014, with the participation of High Level Representatives from the Project Partners.

The EU-CHINA DRM is a project with high level political impact in the External Relations of the EU with China. It is regarded as an especially important project which will bring China and the European Union together to collaborate on disaster risk management. The project will help decision-makers and administrations in China to deal with the challenges of disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and post-disaster management. The result will be a regular exchange, in real-time, of capacity-building knowhow and of scientific and technological data, including early warning and forecast tools.

The objective of the «EU CHINA Disaster Risk Management» Project is to support the Government of China in strengthening the nation-wide disaster management system thereby reducing the vulnerability of, and the adverse impact on, the Chinese people to risks and effects of natural and man-made disasters.

The project partners come from seven EU Member States overall -Greece being one of them, represented by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection (GSCP) - that responded to an open invitation from the European Commission to all member states to participate, and which were finally selected during an evaluation process that took place in 2011, with the participation of the Chinese Authorities. The project was officially launched on 15 June 2012 in Beijing by EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Mrs Kristalina Georgieva and the Chinese State Counsellor Mr Ma Kai.

The organisation of the 4th Consortium Meeting in Athens during the Hellenic Presidency was proposed by the GSCP (GR) to the EU-CHINA partners during the 1st Steering Committee in 2012. The meeting will provide a good opportunity to monitor the implementation of the EU-China Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Project and the actions taken in the last six months towards advancing priority issues.

The meeting will take place with the participation of High Level Representatives from the Project Partners - among them, Michel Papaud, Director General of the French National Civil Protection Authority (directeur général de la sécurité civile et de la gestion des crises) which is the Lead Partner of the project; representatives of six National CP Authorities (France, Italy, Spain, Finland, UK and Greece); the Head of Germany’s Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), of the National School of Administration of France (ENA) and the Head of the Financial Department of the European Commission’s DG ECHO.