
Towards a Preparedness Union Strategy? Show us the money!

- EU and strategic partners,
- EU institutional affairs,
- EU strategy and foreign policy,
- European Affairs,
- Internal EU policies,
The 2024-2029 Strategic Agenda which the European Council adopted at its meeting of 27 June 2024 harks back to a wish outlined in the conclusions of a number of previous meetings, but is much more specific: ‘To ensure a strong and secure Europe, we need to strengthen security and defence and protect European citizens against all forms of crisis, which implies strengthening resilience, preparedness and prevention and response capabilities as part of a global societal approach’.
Strengthening EU preparedness
The Commission understood this message loud and clear. In her guidelines for the next Commission (2024-2029), presented on 18 July 2024, Ursula von der Leyen, then on course for re-election as President, announced a new era for European defence and security and called on the Union to demonstrate new ambition in the area of crisis and security preparedness. She committed to presenting a ‘Preparedness Union Strategy’, paying particular attention to the need to strengthen cyber defence capabilities, ward off chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) security threats and show support for medical countermeasures against public health threats.
This article was originally published by the European Court of Auditors and the full text can be found on their website.
(Photo credit: Franz W. from Pixabay)