Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the ex-post evaluation of the Community Civil Protection Mechanism and Civil Protection Financial Instrument for the period 2007-2013

The European Civil Protection Mechanism (hereafter the Mechanism) was established in 2001 to facilitate reinforced cooperation in civil protection assistance interventions. In January 2006, the Commission proposed to revise the Mechanism on the basis of past experience and to provide a suitable legal basis for future actions. Council Decision 2007/779/EC, Euratom (hereafter the Mechanism Decision), was designed to deal with the increase in frequency and seriousness of natural and man-made disasters.

In addition, Council Decision 2007/162/EC, Euratom (hereafter the CPFI Decision) enabled the funding of activities aimed at preventive, preparedness and more effective response actions, particularly those taken by way of the cooperation between Member States and carried out under the Mechanism. The total amount for the actions and measures to be financed by the CPFI Decision was set at €189.8 million for the period 1 January 2007 – 31 December 2013. The Mechanism Decision and the CPFI Decision were repealed as of entry into force on 1 January 2014 of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism Decision (hereafter the 2013 Decision).

Article 15(2)(d) of the CPFI Decision requires the Commission to submit to the European Parliament and the Council an ex-post evaluation report of Mechanism actions in the field of civil protection that received financial assistance in the period 2007-2013. Furthermore, Article 14 of the Mechanism Decision requires the Commission to evaluate its application and transmit the conclusions to the European Parliament and the Council. The Commission has already carried out an interim evaluation of Mechanism actions that covered the period 2007-2009, the results of which were transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council at the end of 2011 by way of a Report from the Commission accompanied by a Commission Staff Working Paper (together hereafter the Interim evaluation report).

This report presents the main findings of the ex-post evaluation of all Mechanism actions during the full period 1 January 2007 – 31 December 2013. An external consultancy was commissioned to independently evaluate the Mechanism actions, relying on extensive and comprehensive document review, observation of actions, case studies and a broad stakeholder consultation (Participating States, international partners, Commission services) by means of interviews and online surveys.

This report puts forward the Commission's position on the main conclusions and recommendations of the external evaluation. The following chapters outline the main evaluation findings assessed in terms of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and EU added value of the Mechanism actions during the period 1 January 2007 – 31 December 2013, followed by the conclusions of the Commission.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)61: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:061:FIN

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