IRISS (Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies) FP7 European Research Project, Deliverable D6.1: Civil Protection in a European Context, in A report on resilience in "democratic" surveillance societies. Civil protection in a European context, in A report on resilience in "democratic" surveillance societies

Abstract

The term "civil protection" has different meanings and interpretations, sometimes varying from country to country. In the context of Europe, civil protection and its developing and multi-faceted relationship with resilience is a relatively recent phenomenon, arguably originating from the end of the cold war, commonly described as the period from the end of World War II to the early to mid-1990s, when the focus changed to civil protection from civil defence, with contingency plans being put in place by many countries for the civilian populations to organise, prepare to mobilise and defend themselves in the event of a major incident such as a nuclear attack or potential invasion by another country. Over the past two to three decades, and at the level of the European Union, the use of the term "civil protection" has become synonymous with the contingency and emergency planning arrangements that countries either individually and now increasingly collectively (such as the six regional European civil protection initiatives) have put in place to increase resilience and the ability to respond effectively both to the threat or occurrence of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and damage to the built environment, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, floods, landslides and man-made disasters such as marine pollution incidents or threats or actual acts of terrorism such as those experienced in London (2005) or Madrid (2004). . The European Union determined that increasing preparedness and resilience to natural or man-made disasters or to terrorism events would require greater humanitarian focus and co-ordination of resources at a community-based level. In response to this, the European Union adopted two pieces of legislation which cover European civil protection: first, Council Decision 2007/779/EC established a Community Civil Protection Mechanism and, second, Council Decision 2007/162/EC established a Civil Protection Financial Instrument. The Mechanism covers the response and some preparedness activities, while the Instrument enables actions in the three key areas of prevention, preparedness and response.