Luxembourg will hence participate with the satellite-based telecommunication system «emergency.lu» to the European Emergency Response Capacity (EERC) as well as to the European Medical Corps for an initial period of two years.
The European Emergency Response Capacity, commonly referred to as the “voluntary pool”, consists of a range of civil protection capacities which countries that participate in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism make available for EU emergency response operations.
Since the establishment of the voluntary pool in October 2014, 16 participating States have brought together over 70 civil protection capacities (including urban search and rescue teams, water purification equipment, high-capacity pumping units) which are now available for EU operations worldwide, following a request for assistance through the European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC).
The voluntary pool is one of the main innovations of the 2013 civil protection legislation which allows EU civil protection to shift from a rather reactive and ad hoc coordination system to a more predictable, pre-planned, and coherent EU response to disasters. In addition, the voluntary pool helps to identify and fill critical gaps in disaster response capacity in a cost-effective way.
With the « emergency.lu» solution, Luxembourg will be the first state to bring in a communication module to the voluntary pool.