#18,789
Yesterday the European Commission - which presides over 27 countries and nearly 450 million people - announced two major initiatives for dealing with a wide variety of manmade and natural disasters; an EU stockpiling strategy and a medical countermeasures strategy.
This comes just over 3 months after the EU made headlines after calling for all households to prepare for a wide array of disasters (see excerpts below).
What type of crises is the EU preparing for?
The EU is preparing for a broad spectrum of risks and threats, encompassing both natural and human-induced disasters. This includes:
- Natural disasters: floods, wildfires, earthquakes, and extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change.
- Human-induced disasters: industrial accidents, technological failures, and pandemics.
- Hybrid threats: cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), and sabotage of critical infrastructure.
- Geopolitical crises: armed conflicts, including the possibility of armed aggression against Member States.
(SNIP)
In which areas will the EU focus its efforts to enhance population preparedness?Many of the EU's recommendations for household preparedness mirror longstanding advice by FEMA for Americans, but despite seeing dozens of regional disasters each year, many Americans remain underprepared.
The EU will focus its efforts on enhancing population preparedness working with Member States, with a particular emphasis on fostering a culture of resilience at national and local level. This includes improving public awareness of risks through targeted information campaigns, educational programs, and accessible online resources.
Efforts will also concentrate on empowering citizens to take proactive measures to prepare for crises, such as developing household emergency plans and stockpiling essential supplies. The EU will also support the development of effective public warning and crisis communication systems by Member States to reach all citizens, regardless of their location, language, or circumstances.
Although some (mostly Nordic) European countries have long recommended citizens have a 72-hour stockpile of emergency essentials in the home, for most of Europe this represents a major shift in both tone and policy.
While some of this is obviously motivated by the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine (and the resultant increasingly bellicose rhetoric between the East and West), the harsh impact of COVID, increasingly frequent natural disasters, and the rising threat of cyberattacks and terrorism are all factors.
The press release follows (which includes links to individual documents). I'll have a bit more after the break.
The European Commission launches today two initiatives under its Preparedness Union agenda: an EU Stockpiling Strategy and a Medical Countermeasures Strategy. Both are designed to improve access to essential goods for European citizens and societies, businesses and economies – ensuring continuity of essential goods and lifesaving medical supplies at all times, in particular during crises such as major energy blackouts, natural disasters, conflicts or pandemics.
EU Stockpiling Strategy: safeguarding essential supplies ahead of crises
The EU Stockpiling Strategy is designed to secure essential goods — such as food, water, oil, fuel and medicines – in the event of a crisis. It is the first ever EU comprehensive approach to stockpiling.
Key actions in the Stockpiling Strategy include:
- Establishing an EU Stockpiling Network with Member States to share best practices, coordinate stocks, and develop joint recommendations.
- Identifying stock gaps and duplications through information sharing and strengthening cooperation among Member States and with the EU.
- Expanding EU-level stockpiles to fill gaps in essential goods, supported by initiatives like rescEU for medical gear, shelter, generators, and more.
- Enhancing transport and logistics for rapid crisis response.
- Promoting civil-military, public-private, and international partnerships to maximise resource use efficiently and on time.
Medical Countermeasures Strategy: fortifying health crisis preparedness
With rising disease outbreaks and growing antimicrobial resistance, exacerbated by climate change, deteriorating biodiversity and ecosystems, and geopolitical challenges, the EU's Medical Countermeasures Strategy seeks to accelerate the development, production, deployment, and accessibility of lifesaving medical tools.
Key actions of the strategy include:
- Advancing next-generation flu vaccines, new antibiotics for antimicrobial resistance, antivirals for vector-borne diseases, and improving access to CBRN countermeasures.
- Boosting intelligence and surveillance by developing an EU list of priority medical countermeasures, preparedness roadmaps, and EU/global wastewater sentinel systems.
- Accelerating innovation via the Medical Countermeasures Accelerator, R&D hubs, and expanding the HERA Invest programme.
- Securing scalable production through EU FAB's ever-warm capacity and the new RAMP UP partnership.
- Improving medicine access and deployment through joint procurement and support for ready-to-use labs.
- Strengthening global cooperation and cross-sector collaboration, including civil-military preparedness, public-private efforts, citizen readiness, and workforce investment.
Together, these strategies mark a key step toward a more proactive European response in the face of future crises.
Background
The EU Stockpiling Strategy and the Medical Countermeasures Strategy are two of the key actions announced in the Preparedness Union Strategy that was adopted in March 2025. Building on the Niinistö report recommendations, the EU-wide Stockpiling Strategy will integrate all existing sectorial stockpiling efforts, strengthen access to critical resources across the EU and combine centralised EU-level reserves with Member States' contributions, supported by public-private partnerships to ensure efficiency, scalability and cost-effectiveness.
The report also highlighted the urgent need to reinforce the EU's preparedness for all-hazard threats. In this regard, the Medical Countermeasures Strategy aims to boost coordinated action both within the EU and at global level to accelerate the development, production, and rapid deployment and access to lifesaving medical tools, including vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and protective equipment. This will reinforce our collective resilience and ability to prepare and respond to health emergencies.
For more information
Communication on Medical Countermeasures Strategy
Communication on Stockpiling Strategy
Question and answers on Medical Countermeasures Strategy
Question and answers on Stockpiling
This is a comprehensive and ambitious plan, and will realistically require many years to fully implement. But given the state of the world today, increasing household, national, and regional preparedness against `all threats' makes a lot of sense.
The reality is - in a major disaster - a government's response may be limited, and you and your loved ones may be on your own for the first few days.
- A battery operated NWS Emergency Radio to find out what was going on, and to get vital instructions from emergency officials
- A decent first-aid kit, so that you can treat injuries
- Enough non-perishable food and water on hand to feed and hydrate your family (including pets) for the duration
- A way to provide light when the grid is down.
- A way to cook safely without electricity
- A way to purify or filter water
- A way to handle basic sanitation and waste disposal.
- A way to stay cool (fans) or warm when the power is out.
- A small supply of cash to use in case credit/debit machines are not working
- An emergency plan, including meeting places, emergency out-of-state contact numbers, a disaster buddy, and in case you must evacuate, a bug-out bag
- Spare supply of essential prescription medicines that you or your family may need
- A way to entertain yourself, or your kids, during a prolonged blackout
For more on personal and household preparedness, you may wish to revisit:
Emergency Preparedness: A Medicine For The Melancholy
The Gift of Preparedness 2024
Instead of Cursing The Darkness