News

Partners and experts from Czech Republic, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, who represent the international consortium which implements EU financed program on civil protection exercises in Easter Europe, met in Chisinau for a final preparatory meeting for a EU-CHEM-REACT 2 Control Post Exercise (CPX), a second major activity within the program, to be held in Chisinau on 3-4 March, 2020.

The partners agreed on the scope, scenario, conduct and the CPX evaluation. The core task of the CPX is to test and demonstrate the preparedness to national decision making and international response to requests for international assistance and activation, in training mode, the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. The CPX scenario provides for a series of chemical man-made and natural chemical disasters which happen in several neighboring countries in parallel. This would require an extensive international cooperation and assistance to mitigate the consequences. The participation and support of the international partners, including from UN OCHA, OPCW, INTERPOL and OSCE, is secured.

CPX will be accompanied by VIPs and Observers program and an active media program.

Important elements of the final preparatory meeting in Chisinau included presentations on Moldova and Ukraine preparedness to mitigate emergencies. Legal and practical aspects of EU Civil Protection and project evaluation was discussed. 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 (www.ecr.iccss.eu) 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. EU-CHEM-REACT 2 strengthens high level of response within the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). He highlighted that the  program is an example of regional cooperation to reduce chemical threats. It is a first cooperation activity among partners from the Eastern Partnership and Three Sees Initiative to prevent, prepare for, and respond to chemical and environmental emergencies.