On 3-4 October, 2019 in Warsaw, partners from Belarus, Czech Republic, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine, met at a final preparatory meeting for a EU-CHEM-REACT 2 Table Top Exercise (TTX), a first major activity within EU-CHEM-REACT 2 program, to be held in Minsk on 29-30 October, 2019.
The partners agreed on the scope, scenario, conduct and the TTX evaluation. The core task of the TTX is to demonstrate the preparedness to national and international response to man-made and natural chemical and ecological disasters and activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism and support of the international partners, including from UN OCHA, OPCW, INTERPOL and OSCE. The TTX, therefore, will be a subset of measures to assess and enhance response capacity with regard to chemical safety and security threats, with the Control Post Exercise (CPX) and Field Exercise (FsX) later in 2020 as the core event to evaluate progress made in responding to chemical safety and security incidents and misuse of toxic chemicals.
TTX will start on 29th October at Minsk University of Civil Protection, a leading Belarus academic institution for civil protection and fire service. It will be continued on 30 October, at International Rescuers Training Centre, near Minsk, with half a day field activities, to demonstrate the capacities and preparedness of Belarus teams and cooperation with international volunteers, and concluded with wrap-up session. The capacities of the volunteer fire fighters and volunteer medical rescue teams, will be presented and promoted within the EU Mechanism.
TTX will be accompanied by VIPs and Observers program both on 29 and 30 October, 2019.
Important elements of the Warsaw meeting included presentations on legal and practical aspects of EU Civil Protection and project evaluation. The meeting further developed an EU-CHEM-REACT 2 team of trainers, to conduct the trainings and exercises on civil protection and chemical safety and security.
EU-CHEM-REACT 2 is based on the successful, ongoing implementation of the EU-CHEM-REACT project which was implemented in Ukraine by the international consortium of Lithuania, Ukraine Poland with an active participation of OSCE, Latvia and Czech Republic, and led by the ICCSS.