Union Civil Protection Mechanism

The Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) grants are implemented through yearly calls for proposals and provide financial support to the national civil protection authorities and other disaster risk management authorities. Their general objectives include:

• Supporting relevant authorities in enhancing their institutional, technical and financial capacity for preparing, implementing and monitoring disaster prevention and preparedness activities;
• Improving the knowledge base on disaster risks and facilitating the sharing of good practices;
• Supporting the development of risk assessments;
• Strengthen cross-sectoral, cross-border and trans-national crisis prevention, preparedness and response.

Under the UCPM, Technical Assistance for Disaster Risk Management grants, also known as “Track 1 grants”, are available to the Member States and UCPM participating states, with a rate of EU co-financing of 95%. Eligible activities include the following:

• Developing a strategic framework for disaster risk management, including developing disaster risk management plans or strategies, developing national/sub-national investment plans for implementing prevention, preparedness and recovery measures, or carrying out studies on disaster and climate resilience building.
• Investments for disaster risk management, including feasibility studies, cost-benefit analyses, impact assessment linked to a change of the disaster risk management policy or legislation, developing or enhancing a national multi-hazard disaster loss database.
• Investments to improve crisis management capabilities, including developing or enhancing plans, procedures and arrangements aimed at ensuring effective cross-sectoral crisis preparedness and response, and at enhancing information sharing through early warning systems.

This type of technical assistance started in 2019, when the first call for proposals was launched. Since then, it became a regular call, published yearly. Between 2019 – 2022, beneficiaries in 18 countries have been awarded 37 grants for a total value of over EUR 14 million. Annual calls are launched in the first trimester of each year.

The beneficiaries are national authorities of Member States and Participating states competent for civil protection and disaster risk management. Participating States include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia and Turkey. Other countries eligible are Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and Kosovo, in view of their ongoing efforts to join the UCPM.

Several examples of projects supported under this instrument are listed below:

• Development of a National Disaster Risk Management Plan in Greece, aimed at increasing the risk reduction investments.
• Feasibility study for the development of a national disaster damage and loss database in Latvia.
• Proposed new directions to advance civil protection system in the Czech Republic, including a draft new legislation.
• Development of a Long Term Wildfire Prevention Framework for the Istanbul Forest Region, Turkey.
• Preparation of proposal (investment project) addressing disaster risk management due to Belarussian nuclear power plant possible threats, Lithuania.
• Analysis of the needs and requirements for making a Crisis Information Management System internationally and cross-border usable within the Benelux, Belgium.
• Assistance in developing a stronger baseline for effective disaster risk management in Croatia.
• Study of the applicability of Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality technologies in the area of civil protection in the Czech Republic.

The full list is available here.