Now more than ever, Europe needs to build up its resilience and strengthen its capacity to prevent, detect and respond to disasters and risks arising from climate change, but also from cyber-attacks, the spread of viruses and future pandemics, among others.  

By their very nature, all these risks and disasters defy national borders and thus call for cross-border approaches to disaster risk management (DRM).

The Border Focal Point team of DG REGIO just published a study on Strengthening the resilience of EU border regions: Mapping risks & crisis management tools and identifying gaps, developed in cooperation with DG ECHO and Technopolis group.

The study's overall aim was to identify the risks to which cross-border regions are exposed to and the existing agreements and tools available for competent authorities and stakeholders to prevent and respond to disasters in a cross-border context. The study identified gaps in policies, agreements or tools that prevent effective cross-border DRM and provided recommendations on how to address them. This information is presented in ready-to-use border fiches and maps, that gather and analyse this information per each cross-border area in the scope of the study. Furthermore, the study collected 10 cases of good practices that can serve as inspiration and be replicable in other border areas. 

The preliminary results of the study were discussed during the 16th Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate on How can cross-border risk & crisis management enhance EU resilience? The recording of the debate is available online here. 

Download the study and supporting documents below: