YEREVAN, MARCH 29, ARMENPRESS. In the sidelines of the 2nd stage of the “Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters in the Eastern Partnership Countries” (PPRD East 2) program a staff training at the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia took place on March 28-29 called “Response to international help call”.

As “Armenpress” was informed from the press service of the Ministry, 6 member states of the program, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, as well as Czech Republic, Denmark and Romania participated in the training. The training is aimed at fostering the cooperation between Eastern partnership states in the sphere of disaster management.

Experts were present at the staff trainings in each country tasked to coordinate and control the activities. Expert, disaster management consultant Alain Pilou coordinated the activities in Armenia.

Summing up the results, the expert noted that he is deeply impressed by the skills and discipline of the Armenian staff. “The Armenian personnel of disaster management was able to fully demonstrate its practical knowledge”, the experts said.

This was the theoretical part of the program, while the large-scale field exercises will take place on September 16-17 of the current year.

“Natural disasters can strike anywhere, any time. Even the most well prepared country may find that its own rescue services are unable to cope with the situation and need assistance from other countries. The European Union has developed a mechanism to facilitate the international response to disasters. On 28-29 March 2017, the mechanism was tested in a decision-making exercise taking place simultaneously in six Eastern European Partner Countries, three EU Member Countries and the Emergency Response Coordination Centre of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

The arrival of international rescue teams at the site of a disaster is often shown on the news. What the news programmes never show is the intense international coordination, exchange of information, and decision making in many capitals that goes on prior to the actual sending of teams. As Part 1 of the international exercise named EU MOLDEX 2017, that decision-making was tested in a table-top exercise on 28-29 March 2017. To start the exercise, an alert message announced a major earthquake affecting parts of Moldova. The Civil Protection and Emergency Situations Service of Moldova decided that international assistance was needed, and the Crisis Emergency Management Centre sent a request for assistance to the EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre in Brussels. Brussels immediately contacted the capitals of the countries participating in the exercise: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Romania, and Ukraine. In each of these countries, decision makers were gathered at the national crisis management centres and considered the request for assistance. Offers of assistance were made, the offers were coordinated by Brussels, Moldova decided which offers to accept, and questions about host nation support were discussed between the offering countries and Moldova”, reads the statement of the EU Delegation to Armenia.

“After the Spitak Earthquake in 1988 there was no proper coordination of the international assistance,” says Mr Mushegh Ghazaryan, Director of the Rescue Service, Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia, and PPRD East 2 Steering Committee member.

“This exercise has shown that the international community has come a long way since 1988. We are grateful for the EU to organise the exercise and to serve as a catalyst for international coordination.”

The second part of the EU MOLDEX 2017 exercise will take place in September 2017, when rescue teams from the five other Partner Countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Ukraine will support Moldova. They will be supplemented with teams from three EU Member States: the Czech Republic, Denmark and Romania. Background information

The EU-funded Programme on Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters (PPRD East 2) is to contribute to the peace, stability, security and prosperity of the Eastern Partner Countries. It is also aimed to protect the environment, population, cultural heritage, resources and infrastructures of the region by strengthening the countries’ resilience, preparedness and response to man-made disasters and disasters caused by natural hazards. The PPRD East 2 Programme facilitates the strengthening of disaster risk management capacities at the national level in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It enhances regional cooperation among the Partner Countries, and brings Partner Countries progressively closer to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The Programme will last for 4 years with a budget of €5.5 million.