In November 2024, for one week, the Bundesland of Brandenburg in Germany was the focal point of a wildfire-specific peer review, marking a milestone as the first regional review under the UCPM Peer Review Programme.

The quarterly UCPKN Newsletter is full of UCPM-related news, updates from the Community and information on upcoming events, learning opportunities and new resources in the field of civil protection and disaster risk management.

The European Commission has launched the EU Stockpiling Strategy, a key initiative under the Preparedness Union Strategy (PUS) designed to strengthen Europe's preparedness in the face of escalating geopolitical tensions, climate-related disruptions, and supply chain vulnerabilities exposed by recent crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

North Macedonia activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) on 16 March 2025 after a fire left many victims severely burnt and in urgent need of highly specialised treatment.

From 16 to 18 June 2025, the European Commission held the AI for Preparedness workshop, gathering experts from public institutions, research, industry, and civil protection to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can significantly enhance disaster risk management (DRM) in line with the EU’s Preparedness Union Strategy (PUS).

Sectoral news, stories from the frontlines and events of importance to the civil protection and disaster risk management community.

The Knowledge Network Capacity Development pillar aims to connect, promote and strengthen capacity development initiatives relevant to civil protection and disaster management.

Through the Knowledge Network, the scientific community and operational stakeholders in disaster management have a new space to connect and share knowledge.

The exercise programme of the Knowledge Network offers a variety of civil protection exercises to enhance prevention, preparedness and disaster response.

Community of Valued Experts in Hydro meteorological and Technological Multi-hazards.

Extreme Wildfire Events Data Hub for Improved Decision Making project will set up a testbed and open platform to advance in research and prepare European emergency response systems for extreme wildfires.

CROSSFLOOD: Full-scale Exercise Cross Border Flood Response Exercise in a Post Conflict Environment.