During its 112 Day action at the European Parliament, EENA emphasised the importance of integrating lessons on European public warning into the upcoming Union Preparedness Strategy.
EU citizens are at the heart of EU preparedness, safety, and resilience, and public warning is key to integrating them into disaster response. This was EENA’s key message to Commissioner Hadja Lahbib and the dozens of MEPs which it met during its 112-day action at the European Parliament.
112 has evolved over the past decade from an emergency number to a wider concept in public safety. Every EU citizen should know that if they face an emergency anywhere in Europe, they can use the same number to reach an emergency service which receives their location, can communicate in an accessible manner, and whose internal organisation has benefitted from cross EU cooperation and knowledge sharing.
However, ensuring EU citizens can protect themselves during emergencies requires more than the ability to contact emergency services. Emergency services must also be able to send alerts to warn the population of an emergency and advise them on how to protect themselves and others until help arrives. Public warning empowers citizens, and as climate-based incidents and the geopolitical tensions rise, has become critical not just for individual safety, but for safeguarding societal preparation and resilience.
As a result, improving public warning and ensuring European lessons in this area were learned was a key focus of EENA’s 112 Day Action at the European Parliament. During this event EENA expressed its concerns to MEPs and to Commissioner Hadja Lahbib that the upcoming European Union Preparedness Strategy might fail to incorporate European lessons on public warning.
The Union Preparedness Strategy, which will be published in March 2025, is expected to build on the recommendations of the Niinistö Report, which provided recommendations on improving European preparedness and resilience, including through public warning. While EENA welcomed this report, its lack of focus on European public warning systems meant that it failed to consider the lessons learned from the implementation of mobile public warning in 20 EU Member States.
To resolve this, EENA proposed to share its expertise in public warning, and its recent Public Warning Report Card with Commissioner Lahbib’s cabinet. This Report Card, developed in cooperation with European emergency services, provides an overview of the state of public warning in all EU Member States. EENA also offered to share its public warning network’s insights on the need for clear activation procedures during crises, and of the dire consequences when these fail.
Public warning is key to empowering EU citizens during emergencies. Identifying ways to improve it has been a major focus of EENA since it became obligatory in Europe in 2022, and the Union Preparedness Strategy would be undermined if these lessons are ignored. EENA stands ready to cooperate with the Hadja Lahbib’s Cabinet to ensure that no matter where they are in Europe, people receive guidance from emergency services when they need it most.