Since last year, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a full member of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the European solidarity framework for helping countries affected by disasters, but it did not ask for help after the last floods that hit the northern part of the country.
This was said by European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič during an interview organized by the European Newsroom.
He emphasized that the Mechanism can always be of help in such cases, but it is necessary that the country sends an official request for assistance and that there is capacity that member states can offer, and if they cannot do so, that there is capacity for assistance within the EU strategic reserve.
“These are the necessary parameters. As far as I know, Bosnia and Herzegovina did not ask for help after the recent floods, but several other things were requested. They asked for a map, which is the activated Copernicus emergency management system,” the commissioner explained.
These are very useful maps because they greatly help in recognizing the scale of damage from disasters such as floods, and this was done for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but there was a request for it.
“And this was done through the Aristotle program. It is a special program that is prepared at the request of member states who want to know what kind of danger they are facing. Those things were done for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but they did not ask for help in terms of teams to help in response to floods. If that happens, I’m sure that such help will be provided,” Lenarčič stressed.
However, he believes that Bosnia and Herzegovina faced the floods on its own, stating that he himself witnessed that BiH has solid civil protection capacities, which, he adds, could be improved, especially in terms of coordination between the civil protection bodies of the two BiH. entity while respecting the umbrella role of the Ministry of Security in this regard.
“The Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina is our contact point and it is the only contact point. And there is no other way, even in Germany it is like that, civil protection is the responsibility of the federal states (Lander), but we only communicate with Berlin, that’s simply how it works. These are European civil protection mechanisms,” he underlined.
He says that the process of joining Bosnia and Herzegovina to the EU civil protection mechanism went very well in the final phase of accession. However, after the earthquake in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina sent rescuers, but this did not happen through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which, says Lenarčič, is a shame because if it had, the European Commission would have covered a large part of the transportation costs.
“Therefore, there are advantages in being a member of the Mechanism that Bosnia and Herzegovina has not yet used. However, we insist that there must be recognition of the coordination role of the Ministry of Security in Sarajevo, which is our point of contact,” concluded European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič .
