The development of European Union emergency and crisis management structures
Résumé
From the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 to the London Bombings in 2005, the last decade has witnessed a large number of major emergencies and crises leading to reviews of performance of the actors in charge. At the same time demands on the EU emergency and crisis management response increased. The necessity to adapt the administrative and political system to the new international security challenges became an issue at EU level at the end of the 1990s. Therefore to enhance emergency and crisis management capacity, the EU has developed a community civil protection mechanism (CCPM). In 2005, the EU has also adopted the so called Emergency and crisis coordination arrangement (CCA), dealt within the EU council. Looking at the CCPM and the CCA, this chapter will identify the elements of constraint, opportunity and repositioning, which led to the existence of these two mechanisms.