23 Amendments of Gaston FRANCO related to 2011/2023(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 a (new)
Citation 1 a (new)
- having regard to Article 122 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 b (new)
Citation 1 b (new)
- having regard to Article 222 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (the solidarity clause) which lays down that ‘the Union and the Member States shall act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a Member State is the object of a terrorist attack or victim of a natural or man-made disaster’,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 c (new)
Citation 1 c (new)
- having regard to Article 23 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the European Union and its Member States are faced with seven major risks: earthquakes and tsunamis; fires, including forest fires; flooding and landslides; industrial and nuclear accidents; terrorist attacks; natural disasters; and major pandemics; whereas there has been a dramatic increase in the number and severity of these natural and man-made disasters affecting the Union and its citizens, as well as other countries and regions around the world, as tragically demonstrated by the recent severe catastrophe in Japan which was hit by a combination of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe, with a corresponding increase in the loss of life and in economic, social and environmental damage and damage to cultural heritage,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the recent tragedies, notably the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods, have demonstrated that the main tools available to the EU for responding to disasters (humanitarian aid and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism) proved to be working well for what they were designed for and given the circumstances, but whereas there is scopea vital need for improvement in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, coherenceordination and visibility of the EU assistance as a whole,
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas, moreover, during a number of crises, particularly the tsunami of 26 December 2004, many questions were raised about the lack of systematic scenarios or protocols at European level for responding to these seven major risks and the inadequate visibility of Europe's action in relation to the overall effort,
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas immediate coordination, coherence and communication within the EU and with international actors is crucial, duplicating efforts and overlaps must be avoidedwhereas the current European coordination on the ground of several teams with differing chains of command inevitably leads to duplicating efforts and overlaps and proves costly in terms of human resources, coordination and efficiency; and twhe right type of aid must reach affected populations quicklyreas, given the context of the economic and financial crisis, the European Union must develop a protection system based on the sharing and rationalisation of existing resources without any increase in overall expenditure,
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas an integrated all-hazards approach linking disaster prevention (including mitigation and risk reduction), preparedness, response and recovery is the most effective strategy to deal with disasters; whereas it is of great importance to put in place operational tools such as an operational risk prevention plan (including reference procedures and planning tools) and whereas there is a need for the EU to make real investments in the prevention and prediction of risks,
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas, during a crisis, it is essential for rescue teams to have access to precise information as soon as possible so as to distribute basic necessities, equipment and critical resources, and whereas therefore telecommunications are the most important link in the crisis management chain,
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G b (new)
Recital G b (new)
Gb. whereas conventional communications links and resources may be overwhelmed or destroyed in a crisis situation,
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines the need to rationalise and simplify the functioning of the current European disaster response and to optimise resources available for common benefit, whilst encouraging all Member States to contribute and thus guarantee European solidarity; considers, accordingly, that the EU’s reaction capacity should form part of an integrated multi-risk approach based on ‘bottom-up’ delegated management, on the voluntary sector and on Member States’ specialisations in one or more risk areas;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Further calls for the EU’s disaster reaction capacity to make use of Europe’s outermost regions and overseas territories which can form bases for facilitating logistics operations and for pre- positioning its resources in every ocean;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Considers that the ‘all hazards’ approach should go hand in hand with greater flexibility in reacting to the different categories of risk, which need to be considered on a case-by-case basis, which in turn calls for the development of decentralised capacity for analysis and the planning of measures required in the light of the nature, probability and seriousness of the risks;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Calls on the Commission to include prevention in existing lessons-learnt exercises following interventions conducted within the framework of the Community Mechanism for civil protection, and make best use of the existing lessons-learnt programme, in order to enhance disaster prevention measures, as called for by the Council in its draft conclusions on a Community framework on disaster prevention within the EU (doc. 15394/09 of 12 November 2009);
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5d. Calls on the Commission to draw up and forward to Parliament a list of Community instruments funding disaster prevention activities, with a view to evaluating the possibility of incorporating disaster prevention programmes to a greater extent in existing EU funding programmes, as requested by the Council in its draft conclusions on a Community framework on disaster prevention within the EU (doc. 15394/09 of 12 November 2009);
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Calls on the Commission to actively involve the new European Emergency Response Centre in the two Community tools to protect forests from forest fires, EFFIS and EFFICS;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Underlines the need for flexible, simple and rapid inter-service coordination; stresses that this should only involve the relevant services, which should respond within a very short timeframe whilst avoiding red tape, so that Europe’s response to emergency situations is as effective as possible;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Emphasises the increased risk of disasters caused by forest fires, primarily because of climate change which is instrumental in the outbreak of large forest fires; calls on the Commission to set up a special unit within its new European Emergency Response Centre to deal with this risk;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 3
Subheading 3
Logistics and transport and telecommunications
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Calls on the Commission to explore the possibility of equipping the EU with a dedicated and secure telecommunications capacity and integrated crisis management solutions ranging from prevention to recovery;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 b (new)
Paragraph 17 b (new)
17b. Calls therefore on the Commission to make optimum use of the existing and future solutions and capacity provided by telecommunications satellites in order to facilitate the development of services for citizens in the fields of public security and emergency response, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, Member States and stakeholders (private operators, the industry);
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Calls for regular training for all experts involved to enhance the interoperability of different assets, as well as for further research and analysis of potential or identified gaponsiders that the dedicated training of European staff and experts in disaster response would make it possible, through ‘common core’ training and specialised modules, to develop awareness of common European working methods and response procedures;