Minister of Justice and Public Security Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) met with the Commissioner for Crisis Management in EU, Janez Lenarčič, today. The Comissioner took the opportunity to thank Norway for its contribution to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).
Norway has equal status as any other EU member state in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). The Mechanism contributes to a broad cooperation between the member states within civil protection, preparedness and prevention, where the participating states join forces to make their resources available to disaster-affected countries, both in and outside of Europe. For instance in the area of forest fires, the scheme constitutes a significant additional preparedness for Norway to draw upon if own national resources are not adequate to handle the disaster.
The war in Ukraine has increased our concern about the potential risk of a nuclear incident, and the need to strengthening national CBRN preparedness is therefore high on the agenda. Training, exercises and cooperation across boarders are an important part of this. In the conversation with Lenarčič, Mehl also mentioned the recently held exercise Arctic Reihn a EU-funded exercice with a nuclear incident, where cross-country cooperation was trained within the framework of the UCPM.
The exercise provided useful experience on handling nuclear incidents, but also cross-border cooperation where teams from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal contributed.
“I am confident that Norway will continue to be one of the most active members of #EUCivilProtectionMechanism – the mechanism that pulls 🇪🇺 solidarity into action. When it matters most,” tweeted Commissioner Janez Lenarčič after the meeting.
