The BALANCE project aims to improve the Civil Protection Preparedness and Response capabilities of Montenegro in dealing with large disasters, requiring joint response coordination facilitated via the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. A Full-Scale Exercise signifies the climax of the efforts of such projects, and it is vital for practicing interoperability and collaboration in a real case.
The Full-Scale Earthquake Preparedness Exercise of project BALANCE was successfully implemented between the 10th and the 14th of October 2022 in the Boka Kotorska Bay of Montenegro.
‘I am proud to be part of this project where all operational teams and Montenegrin authorities run a very complex and promising exercise’
The scenario of the Exercise concerned the occurrence of a large magnitude earthquake which could not be handled by the local and national Civil Protection forces of Montenegro. For this reason, the European Civil Protection Mechanism of the European Union was activated, through which a significant number of European countries deployed rapid response teams to reinforce the Search and Rescue (USAR) operations in the affected area.
The implementation of the Exercise was coordinated by the Ministry of Interior of Montenegro, with civil protection organisations (including Red Cross missions) from 9 different European countries participating in its execution.
In total, more than 600 civil protection stakeholders (rescuers, operational planners, decision makers) took part in the successful implementation of large number of multidimensional injects associated with the Exercise scenario.
The main objective of the Exercise was to improve the effectiveness of the Civil Protection services of Montenegro in responding to major natural disasters within the framework of the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. At the same time, the Exercise provided all participating actors with significant experience in addressing the planning and operational challenges posed by the activation of the Mechanism and the implementation of the Host Nation Support Guidelines.
BALANCE is funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO). The project is coordinated by the Centre of Excellence in Risk and Decision Sciences of European University Cyprus. The BALANCE Consortium comprises of academic and civil protection organisations from the countries of Montenegro, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Italy and Spain.
‘As expert in ground shaking monitoring, I visited the Institute of Hydrometeorology and Seismology of Montenegro of Montenegro & followed the SOPs of an earthquake. The benefits are of great importance’
‘A great opportunity for the collaboration of all emergency management and civil protection teams to come together’