On August, 17, 2020 the Dortmund Fire Department (Feuerwehr Dortmund, FDDO), Institute for Fire Service and Rescue Technology of the City of Dortmund (Institut für Feuerwehr- und Rettungstechnologie, IFR) and the International Centre For Chemical Safety and Security (ICCSS), called further the Partners, conducted joint on-line conference on furthering cooperation in civil protection and reducing CBRN threats.

Albrecht Broemme, Honorary President of the -German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), member of the ICCSS Global Team, and gen. ret. Wiesław Leśniakiewicz, Vice President of the Board of the Association of Voluntary Fire Service of Poland, who leads the ICCSS program on civil protection, actively participated in the on-line conference. 

The Partners discussed the challenges for civil protection during the COVID-19 pandemics and need to enhance public safety and security, with an emphasis on chem-bio safety and security. They agreed to a set of concrete cooperation measures to enhance civil protection without borders. They stressed a need for efforts to increase public awareness about chemical and biological threats. 

German partners highly valued ICCSS leadership to enhance and promote and implement UCPM in the Eastern Europe and confirmed readiness to support and join ICCSS efforts with the technical, training and innovative solutions.

The basis for the cooperation was the agreed and signed Memorandum of understating (MoU)between the Dortmund Fire Department (Feuerwehr Dortmund, Germany) and the Institute for Fire Service and Rescue Technology of the City of Dortmund and the International Centre for Chemical Safety and Security (ICCSS, Poland). The MoU leading provision is Partner’s support to enhance and implement Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) outside the EU and promote Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network.

The Partners highly assessed the active role of DG ECHO in enhancing civil protection outside the EU. They confirmed readiness to jointly develop and participate in EU funded projects to enhance UCPM and Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network.

The Partners will cooperate in development of COVID-19 Safety and Security manual for CBRN related exercise and trainings in time of pandemics, for use of national and international authorities and First Responders. This manual will be a rolling document to be implemented for the first time during FX.

The Partners supported the cooperation with University of Civil Protection in Minsk and International Rescuers Training Centre (IRTC) in Belarus https://rescuetraining.ucp.by/, to enhance and develop European training and exercise capacities civil protection and reducing CBRN threats and UCPM implementation.

The opportunity for the ICCSS was discussed to jointhe eNOTICE Project https://www.h2020-enotice.eu/, as partner in the development of European network of CBRN training to enhance collaboration between CBRN training centres and practitioners’ needs-driven CBRN innovation and research.

As it was stressed by Mr. Broemme and gen. Leśniakiewicz, that cooperation between FDDO and ICCSS is an outstanding example of multi-stakeholder cooperation, between governments, volunteers, civil society, academy, and experts, in enhancing European values and practical cooperation to promote UCPM and develop civil protection outside EU. They noted the importance of practical activities, with an emphasis on exercises and trainings, among EU and non-EU partners in implementing UCPM. They highlighted the relevance of the capacities of countries of Eastern Europe in enhancing European capacities in civil protection.

The partners confirmed an active participation and talked about the organization of joint activities during Interschutz 2021https://www.interschutz.de/en/, a major trade show for firefighters, rescue services, civil protection, and security.