Martin Lodge (LSE) and Nick Sitter (CEU) argue that the EU is facing a new crisis: the backsliding of Member States on previous commitments. Rather than investing in new transboundary crisis management capacities, the member states increasingly chose to go it alone. Read this brief piece here.
Natural disasters, industrial or large-scale transport accidents, health threats or the response to terrorist attacks have risen to feature prominently on the agenda of European security policy-makers and practitioners over the last decade. States and international organizations, most notably the European Union, have established a plethora of policies and mechanisms to deal with these risks and crises. This edited volume is the first publication to examine the resulting cross-cutting, multi-level policy space of European civil security governance in its different manifestations and consequences. Thus, this study identifies patterns of diversity and commonality between European states and international organizations, elucidates the process of transformation and reviews the opportunities for transnational cooperation in the hybrid area of civil security that still often escapes wider public attention. European Civil Security Governancewill be of interest to researchers and students of crisis and disaster management, EU integration, international organizations and security governance.
Solid empirical research on crisis coordination structures from our Norwegian colleagues.
You can find it here.
In this excellent article, Wout Broekema (Leiden University) explains how politicization affects EU learning in four oil disasters.
ABSTRACT: This article explores the relation between issue politicization and crisis-induced learning by the EU. The author performs a political claims analysis on the political response to the four major oil spill disasters that have occurred in European waters since 1993. Political claims observed in three arenas (mass media, national parliaments, and the European Parliament) were compared with recommendations in post-crisis evaluation reports and the EU’s legislative responses. For all three political arenas, findings indicate that politicization of issues either promotes or impedes crisis-induced EU learning, which points to the existence of determining intervening factors. EU legislation that is adopted in response to oil spill disasters appears to a large extent grounded in crisis evaluation reports. Characteristics of crisis evaluation reports, especially the degree of international focus, seem to offer a more plausible explanation for variance in crisis-induced learning outcomes than politicization.
You can find the full article here.
Crisisplan is part of the Inachus consortium (a Horizon 2020 project sponsored by the EU). This consortium is developing new tools for Search and Rescue teams. For more information, see the INACHUS site.