On Monday 30th October 2006 in Brussels, The Council of the European Union and the European Commission conducted an exercise to test the functioning of the recently approved ‘Emergency and Crisis Coordination Arrangements’ (CCA).

The aim of the exercise was to verify the joint capacity of the Council and the Commission to react quickly and efficiently to a major crisis.

The arrangements are designed to enable the Council and the European Commission to successfully respond to any major emergency or crisis that may affect several EU Member States, or the interests of the Union as a whole.

The chosen scenario was a near-simultaneous terrorist attack in five EU cities.

[It is underscored that the exercise's scenario was not based on any existent information on the possibility of such attacks taking place, and was a purely fictitious description of events.]

CCAEX06, the exercise's code name, was designed to test the adequacy of the CCA structures, in particular the CCA Support Group (senior officials of the Council and the Commission with an advisory role), and the CCA Steering Group (the Presidency, the Member States directly affected by the crisis, and top Council and Commission officials, such as their respective Secretaries-General). The Steering Group's role is to think and plan strategically in response to a major crisis. Moreover, it lays the groundwork for the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), whose task is to consider and decide on the different possible responses to crisis at EU level.

The exercise started at 13h30 Brussels time with a number of fictitious media inputs that continued throughout the afternoon, mobilising ARGUS, (the Commission’s general rapid alert system and crisis communications network), the Commission’s Crisis Coordination Committee and culminating with the meetings of the Support Group and Steering Group at 17h15 and 18h00, respectively. The exercise was terminated at 20h00.

An oral evaluation of the exercise was presented later in the week by the Presidency to Coreper. The conclusions were that the CCA structures were adequate; there was a good level of knowledge among participants of the CCA structures and procedures, as well as about the importance of close cooperation between the Council and the Commission; and that there was a need for improvement in the use of communications technologies.

•Date: 3rd Nov 2006• Region: W.Europe/UK •Type: Article •Topic: Terrorism
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