ResponSEE (2020-2021)

Union Civil Protection Mechanism Exercises (UCPM-2020-EX-AG)

Project’s Titel:

ResponSEE Project – Planning, development and conduct of a Union Civil Protection Exercise project to improve the response to an earthquake in South East Europe.

Project’s Logo

Project start:

01.01.2021

Duration:

18 Months

Coordinator:

Federal Government of Styria, Civil protection department (AUSTRIA)

Consortium/project’s Partners:

Consortium’s Logos

Supported Experts as subcontractors to the coordinator:

Supported Experts’ Logos

Further involved Civil Protection Organizations:

  • National Civil Protection Agency, Ministry of Defense / ALBANIA
  • Rescue and Protection Directorate, Ministry of Interior / MONTENEGRO

Background:

The countries of the South East Europe (SEE) have a long history of devastating earthquakes that have incurred significant economic and human losses and influenced the development efforts of the countries. Particularly sensitive and earthquake-prone territories are located within ALB, BiH and MNE.

BiH: Bosnia-Herzegovina, ALB: Albania, MNE: Montenegro

Aim of the Project:

To strengthen disaster preparedness in the Western Balkans (WB) by increasing interoperability, enabling and supporting cooperation for international disaster response to bring ALB and BiH closer to the Union Civil Protection Mechanism/UCPM. This will be ensured by an in-depth analysis of the CP situation and exercise capacities of ALB, BiH and MNE, joint exercise planning, development of an exercise planning guide and creating a joint testbed by executing a Table Top Exercise/TTX, Command Post Exercise/CPX and a Full Scale Exercise/FSX.

Project objectives are:

  • To analyse the CP situation in ALB, BiH and MNE;
  • Conduct joint exercise planning;
  • Prepare and conduct one joint TTX, CPX, and FSX;
  • Conduct evaluation and conclude with a lessons learned procedure and recommend a way ahead for the region;
  • Develop an exercise planning guide.

The project is designed to achieve an overall strengthening of disaster preparedness in the WB while increasing interoperability and HNS measures for regional and international disaster response as well as conduct capacity building by training and exercising.

The Project’s Exercises:

Table Top Exercise TTX (06. – 07. July 2021)

The aim of the TTX is to conduct a discussion-based exercise, in which the planned FSX scenario will be simulated and discussed. All relevant existing plans, documents, maps, guidelines etc. can be used and discussed, possible problems and connected solutions identified and at the end the ground for an efficient simulated FSX should be set.

Command Post Exercise CPX (01. – 2. December 2021)

The aim of the CPX is to conduct a functional exercise, in which the actual response and deployment to an affected country will be simulated. Special attention is given to the cooperation between UN / EU / the states of the consortium and ALB and MNE. One of the challenges will be the cooperation between Emergency Response Coordination Centers/ERCC’s of UN and EU as well as the Emergency Operation Centres of ALB, BiH and MNE as it is in real missions. The questions what changes need to be made to normal procedures in times of a pandemic will also be raised here with a specific focus on support for operational Standing Operating Procedures/SOPs adaption.

 Full Scale Exercise FSX (27. -29. April 2022)

The aim of the FSX is to conduct an operations-based exercise with deployment and field response to BiH as the affected country. The scenario is the further developed TTX and CPX scenario with all recommendations included. All existing procedures due to a real mission situation will be tested in the field with involvement of a variety of organisations and agencies which one will meet in the field. All real mission activities of Union Civil Protection/UCP will be included in a 36 hrs exercise under stressful conditions and time pressure.

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Website: ResponSEE

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