Seminar on the relationship between the European Union and the United Nations in responding to crises and disasters
- from: 02.09.2008
- to: 04.09.2008
- In: Aix-en-Provence
The seminar dedicated to the relationship between the European Union and the United Nations in disaster response is one of the measures which aim to enhance the international community's capacity to respond to natural or man-made disasters.
Major recent disasters, either man-made or natural, such as the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean or the forest fires and flooding in Europe in 2007, have brought to light the need to develop a disaster response capacity on the scale of the international community. This response must be coordinated and global and incorporate two key aspects: the means and the teams that are dedicated to civil protection and humanitarian aid agencies.
It is against this background that the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union is organising a seminar on relations between the European Union and the United Nations in disaster response. It will be held in Aix-en-Provence from 2 to 4 September 2008. The seminar, organised jointly with the Crisis Centre of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, will bring together representatives from civil protection and humanitarian aid agencies of the Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area, the European Commission, the General Secretariat of the Council and delegates from the United Nations (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).
The aim of the seminar is twofold. First, to reach better cooperation between the humanitarian aid agencies and civil protection bodies which can be mobilised together in disaster relief operations. And, second, to bolster coordination between the European Union and the UN two years after the Salzburg seminar by means of an enhanced mutual understanding of the standards and practices that are specific to each of the two organisations. This meeting is held in line with the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid and the Communication from the Commission of 5 March 2008 on reinforcing the Union's disaster response capacity. It should allow progress to be made on setting up joint European planning and intervention teams by means of common EU/UN exercises developed with a view to setting up a European disaster response training network to train the various emergency and humanitarian aid actors
- Updated: 18.12.2008
