Mefisto project
AGREEMENT NUMBER – ECHO/SUB/2016/742556/PREP24
In the last decade, the improvement of EU countries co-operation in civil protection assistance interventions in the event of major emergencies has become one of a major priority. Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), established in 2013, is daily working to reach this goal. Among the other, forest fires are civil protection events that yearly affect several EU countries, mainly in the Mediterranean area. Over the last two decades in southern Europe, more than 10 million hectares of forest have been damaged by fire. Each fire-fighting season incurs significant costs, measurable principally in terms of loss of human life, investment in fire-fighting resources, damage to the environment and infrastructures, and cost for recovering the burned areas. In the last decades, the deployment of expert, team and equipment, among the member States in occasion of severe fire seasons in one of the member state has increased (e.g. Canadair sent to Greece from other countries in 2009 and 2015). At the same time, EU exercise on forest firefighting were organized (e.g. Sardinia 2008, Prometheus 2014) thus highlighting the needs of a co-ordination and collaboration improvement on forest fire response capacity at EU level. In this context, MEFISTO project aims to raise preparedness level through an efficient and standardized training protocol developed by a representative network of Mediterranean stakeholders. This project will address new opportunities regarding interoperability between Mediterranean training centres, allowing international cooperation against disasters related with forest fires. The project aims at establishing training programmes with specific sessions on the organization, protocols and procedures applied in the neighbouring countries in order to improve the effectiveness on cross-border firefighting and to allow an easy and safe transfer of human and material facilities from a country to another.
Objetives
The general aim of the project is the development of procedures for improving efficiency and effectiveness of forest firefighting at European level increasing the collaboration capacity among countries, developing common high quality standards in fire-fighting training systems, and sharing knowledge.
In detail the main objectives of the project are:
...applied in each of the Mediterranean countries involved in the project and develop the basis for the future involvement of other EU countries
...of each country specific sessions on the organization, protocols and procedures applied in the neighbouring countries in order to improve the effectiveness on crossborder firefighting and to allow an easy, fast and safe transfer of human and material facilities from a country to another during fire events.
These training sessions should be especially addressed to firefighters located close to the national borders.
...to improve the communication efficacy in join firefighting operation
...for forest fire fighters.
...which manage and monitor the skills and competence certification processes at national level. This organization should define and maintain minimum standards of skills and abilities in forest firefighting training, applied in all European countries. With the setting of standards, the new organization will contributes to the improvement of health and safety, and the mobility due to the interchange ability of the certificates.
Expected Results
The planned activities will guarantee the development of a network among involved countries for starting the development of a coordination to facilitate a coherent European response during forest fire emergencies inside Europe.
The main expected results will be:
These documents will contain the main elements to be included in the training sessions addressed to international cooperation; i.e. protocols and procedures applied in the neighbouring countries in order to improve the effectiveness on cross-border firefighting.
...which can be applied in all partners countries (training assessment, assessment methods, scoresheets). The definition of the standards will be particularly addressed towards the improvement of both health and safety of the personnel, and the efficacy and effectiveness of prevention and suppression activities. Addressing this issue attention will be made to the transferability of the results to the other EU countries
...of training in all the involved structures.
...of European Forest Fire personnel.
...with the aims of develop and guarantee the international standard assessment of firefighter skill.
...including test of the skills assessment procedures.
More information
| Duration | Starting date | End date | Total eligible cost | EC contribution | Financing rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Months | 15-01-2017 | 15-01-2019 | € 434.309 | € 325.732 | 75 % |
