This weekend, the Commission concluded the European Citizens’ Panel on Preparedness in Brussels. After almost 3 months of deliberation, the 150 randomly selected citizens, from all 27 Member States and representing EU diversity, formulated 20 recommendations on how to strengthen the EU’s capacity to prevent and respond to emergencies.
On Sunday, the citizens officially handed them over to the Director-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, Maciej Popowski. They will now feed into the implementation of the Preparedness Union Strategy.
The recommendations focus on 6 key areas:
- communication,
- information integrity,
- inclusion,
- self-sufficiency,
- engagement,
- education.
They include proposals to strengthen preparedness education, improve warning systems and crisis communication tailored to individual needs, support volunteering, enhance European self-sufficiency and resilience, counter misinformation and disinformation, and ensure more inclusive support for financially vulnerable groups and persons with disabilities.
Among the examples of concrete actions, citizens recommend that the EU and its Member States communicate national guidance on citizens’ personal responsibilities in preparing for future crises through door-to-door outreach and the distribution of brochures to households on the 72-hour self-sufficiency guidelines, ensuring that seniors and persons with disabilities are not left behind.
The involvement of local authorities would be essential to ensure that the message is trusted and culturally appropriate. Citizens also recommend the adoption of a standardised and universal visual and auditory symbol system to help identify key locations and services in times of crisis anywhere in the EU.
For further information, the citizens’ recommendations are available on the Citizens’ Engagement Platform.
