Civil protection: Community action programme 1998-1999

The ESC hoped that as well as supporting, backing up and supplementing national activities, the programme would seek to inject Community added value in an area that was closely bound up with the development of a citizens’ Europe. It noted that in the absence of a specific legal basis, the proposal for a decision establishing the action programme was based on Article 235. The ESC felt that the forthcoming Treaty revision should include a Title on civil protection, either in the form of a separate chapter or as an adjunct to an existing chapter, bearing in mind the potential Community added value in this field. The insertion of a separate chapter would be justified by the cross-sectoral nature of the problem, as in the case of the new chapters on public health and consumer protection. As part of the preventive approach advocated by the ESC, it was important to enable the non-governmental organisations to contribute to the work of the advisory committee provided for in Article 4, as well as to training and experience-swapping activities.