New CBRN response capacities for the UCPM
rescEU: paving the way for mobile laboratory capacities and CBRN detection, sampling, identification and monitoring capacities.
In 2019, the European Commission upgraded the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and created ‘rescEU’, a new European reserve of assets and resources. It will include a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters, medical evacuation planes, shelter, transport and logistics capacities, as well as a stockpile of medical, and CBRN items and field hospitals that can respond to health emergencies.
On 21 March 2022, the Commission adopted the Implementing decision (EU) 2022/465, after an analysis of identified and emerging and capacities and gaps at Union level revealed the need to further develop a reserve to respond to CBRN incidents. This decision paves the way for developing rescEU mobile laboratory capacities and rescEU CBRN detection, sampling, identification and monitoring capacities.
The mobile laboratory capacities will provide flexible and adaptable support where Member States are overwhelmed in their capacity to detect, analyse or verify pathogens or CBRN substances. The in-field CBRN detection, sampling, identification and monitoring capacities will support the response to emergencies, search activities, the response to security events and the surveillance of major events.
Both capacities will strengthen the EU preparedness and increase the EU and Member States’ resilience to ‘low probability-high impact’ events