At today’s session, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina accepted the agreement on the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The official signing of the agreement will take place on Tuesday.
The Special Representative of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Johann Sattler, stated that joining this mechanism will strengthen the preparedness of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region for crisis situations and strengthen rescue mechanisms.
Sattler announced that European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič will visit Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday in order to officially sign the agreement.
The process of joining this Mechanism began in 2015, when BiH submitted an application for membership in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. At that time, it was assessed that it was not ready and a grant project of 2.5 million euros was provided to improve the capacity. This project was implemented and completed on November 1, 2021, which created the conditions for joining the Mechanism.
By joining this Mechanism, in addition to allowing Bosnia and Herzegovina to rely on the help of countries that are already members of the Mechanism in emergency situations, it will enable higher training quotas for people, certification of members of various services and access to projects within the EU for equipping and training.
So far, the members of the Civil Protection Mechanism are 27 EU members, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, North Macedonia, Turkey.
