Last Friday, 8th of March 2024, a hearing on the topic “Strengthening European civil protection through NRW initiatives – North Rhine-Westphalia must break its silence and continue to show European solidarity!” took place in the NRW state parliament. DKKV Managing Director Dr. Benni Thiebes was invited as an expert for the Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen parliamentary group.
There was cross-party consensus that the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to strengthen cooperation between EU nations in dealing with disasters was a good mechanism and should be further expanded. However, everyone agreed that significantly more resources should be invested in prevention in order to strengthen disaster preparedness and thus prevent future crises from turning into disasters. In addition, more attention should be paid to past disasters in order to improve procedures and learn from possible mistakes.
You can find an overview of all experts here. You can view the complete application for the hearing and an overview of the statements received from the parliamentary groups here.