XVI DPPI SEE Regional Meeting, Bulgaria, Sofia April 7-8, 2008

The meeting was jointly organized and hosted by the Ministry of State policy for Disasters and Accidents of the Republic of Bulgaria and the DPPI SEE Secretariat.

Eight countries signatories (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia) along side other SEE countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey), partner countries (Denmark, Sweden) and partners from the other national and international organizations and entities (Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), United Nations/International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), United Nations/Office for Humanitarian Affairs (UN/OCHA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP/CADRI), European Commission (EC), Stability Pact SEE, World Meteorological Organization, Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Aidmatrix Foundation, Bournemouth University Disaster Management Center United Kingdom (BUDMC).

Mr. Damir Trut from Croatia, DPPI SEE Chair in Office, in his foreword has emphasized the importance of this meeting since it is the first one after the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Institutional Framework of the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative for South Eastern Europe, was signed in Zagreb, on September 24, 2007 by eight SEE countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia). He also has informed with a pleasure of the intent of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey to join the MoU today and bring the total number of signatories to ten. He also pointed out the issue pertaining to the resignation of the Head of the DPPI Secretariat that although it came at a very inopportune moment will not disturb the flow of events contained in the Work plan for 2008. The call for nominations for a new Head of Secretariat will be announced shortly and countries signatories are invited to nominate persons for this post.

He then gave the floor to Mr. Valeri Nikolov, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State Policy for Disasters and Accidents. Mr.Nikolov has welcomed the participants and expressed a gratitude that Bulgaria is the host country of the DPPI Regional Meeting and Ministerial Meeting scheduled for next day. He has pointed out that the international activities of the Ministry are being defined by the strategic goals of the Republic of Bulgaria. Basic lines of cooperation are connected with the recognition of the Republic of Bulgaria in NATO and EU structures. Also contacts with South Eastern Europe region are getting deeper. Signing of the MoU on DPPI Institutional Framework, the Government of Bulgaria, has strongly showed a readiness to be an active part of the DPPI activities. In recent years are being improved the organization and coordination while carrying out international humanitarian operations at providing direct help in emergency rescue and recovery operations by specialized teams. Mr.Nikolov has expressed the best wishes for successful work of the DPPI Regional Meeting.

The floor was then given to Mr. Hido Biščević, Secretary General of Regional Cooperation Council (RCC). Mr.Biscevic as for first time is attending to the DPPI SEE Regional Meeting, has emphasized that with the transformation of the Stability Pact into the RCC, has been added a final touch to the new architecture for regional co-operation in South Eastern Europe. The RCC is an important tool for promoting stability, security and social and economic development in South Eastern Europe and that regional cooperation process should continue and grow to the benefit of region. He has acknowledged the importance of regional cooperation as a means to address the common challenges faced by the countries of South Eastern Europe and a facilitator of further European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. The RCC will ensure the strategic coordination and development of regional processes in support of the SEECP as well as in coordination with the EU, NATO, international donors and financial institutions. He also pointed 2 of 6 out an importance of the Ministerial Meeting that scheduled for the next day, here in Sofia, and expects that on the meeting will be adopted the Strategy and Action Plan for DPPI. Regarding of legal status of RCC, Mr.Biscevic has mentioned that expects that it will be finished in the second half of May this year.

Mr.Trut then gave an overview of the status of the MoU pointing out that Bosnia and Herzegovina will shortly be able to take on their formal role of depositary state and distribute to all signatories an authorized copy so that would all proceed with their internal ratification procedures.

Greece requested that the following statement be included in the official minutes of this meeting: “Since FYROM has signed this MoU as “Republic of Macedonia” instead of the legal name agreed upon the framework of the UN as mentioned previously (SC Resolutions 817/1993 and 845/1993), Greece cannot recognize the signature of this country, which was accepted to the “Stability Pact” as “FYROM”.

Ms. Vildana Bijedić, DPPI SEE Secretariat Admin/Finance Assistant gave an interim budget report and information on the administrative framework for the DPPI. She has emphasized that the DPPI SEE Secretariat is managing the DPPI programme using the budgetary savings from the last year and pointed out that because of continuation of budgetary, the authorized MoU by depository country should be submitted to the signatures countries, as soon as possible. As for administrative framework for the DPPI she said that the IOM is still administrating finance of the DPPI SEE Secretariat and would be expected that after the RCC has completed a procedure of legal status that the RCC will take over administrating of the DPPI SEE Secretariat.

PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES

Ms. Arabela Vahtarić gave a report on the conclusions and recommendations from the XV DPPI SEE Regional meeting, reminding that it was held in Zagreb, Croatia, attended by 10 countries from the region and 3 partner countries as well as 9 organizations. The Progress Report of the DPPI SEE activities for the period between two regional meetings, April - September 2007, gave an overview of the activities contained in the 2007 Work plan and it was concluded that the DMTP Project was in line with expectation; the Joint Emergency Response Unit Project should be revitalised and potential donors should be sought; the Seismic Map Project was very successful; and the Work Plan for 2008 was adopted.

Ms. Antoaneta Boycheva, Head of the International Cooperation Dept. of the Ministry of State Policy for Disasters and Accidents informed the meeting on the SEECP Ministerial meeting scheduled for the next day. The meeting is to be chaired by H.E. Sergey Stanishev Prime minister and Ms. Emel Etem Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of State Policy for Disasters and Accidents. Speeches are to be given by Mr. Erhard Busek, Special Coordinator for SP, Mr. Hido Biščević, Secretary General of RCC, as well as, the heads of all delegations and representatives of international organizations.

As regards the Strategy and Action Plan for DPPI envisaged in the Ministerial Statement that will be adopted by the Ministerial Meeting, Mr. Trut pointed out that this document will guide DPPI countries in our future activities and will give a good level of transparency of our work that will hopefully encourage partners to participate in our efforts. This document should reflect the overall intention of all our countries to enhance cooperation, with an emphasis on prevention and preparedness and should give an outline of activities that will support this common goal. To this end Mr. Trut recommended that Croatia as the current Chair in Office with the support of the Secretariat, as well as the RCC make a draft Strategy and Action plan that would be in line with these guidelines and then distribute it to all members for their input. The final deadline for this document that would be submitted to our ministers for approval was defined as the end of 2008.

Project implementation

Disaster Management Training Program

The third meeting of the DMPT Steering Group was held on 7 April. Mr. Trajko Todorčevski from Macedonia, Chair of DMTP Steering Group, has presented the report of the third DMTP Steering Group meeting.

The DPPI events that were conducted until November 2007 with more than 80 participants and as follows: 1) Specialized Module 1-planning was held in Croatia on January 22-26; 2) United Nations Civil Military Coordination Course in Slovenia on February 11-16; 3) Regional Disaster Management Course in Croatia on March 12-23; 4) Elsedima & Seveso II-III in Romania on May 14-17; 5) “Be prepared” in Hungary on 5-6 November and 6) RACVIAC - Crisis Management in Croatia on November 12-14, 2007.

As for this year and on going DPPI SEE activities, in RACVIAC, Croatia has been organized 1) The Training Seminar on NATO Standards and Project Evaluation Procedures – Hydro meteorological on February 20-22; 2) Joint Fire Fighting Units Refreshing Training has been organized for 72 fireman that before have passed the training and this one was for refreshing of their knowledge. The training was organized in Croatia, Divulje Center and in two periods: March 27-29 and March 31-April 2; 3) The meeting of senior managers and experts of disaster management authorities and fire-fighting services and professionals from the SEE has been hold in Trogir, Croatia on April 1, 2008. The other DPPI activities will follow up the Working Plan for 2008 already adopted by the DPPI SEE countries.

DMTP Conclusions and Recommendations: All participants stressed the importance of the DMTP and readiness for cooperation to strengthen the role of DPPI SEE activities in the region. DPPI partners expressed their willingness to support the DMTP activities. The representative of UN ISDR once again pointed out the importance of the disaster risk reduction concept (in line with the Hyogo Framework).

Joint Fire Fighting in SEE

The project had always received the highest praise and was judged to be extremely beneficial to the end users as well as other SEE countries as it could be used as an example for future similar projects. Ms. Fajfer gave a presentation on the latest activity within this project namely the Refresher course for fire fighters that had previously undergone the initial training course, which was deemed very useful. This event was taken advantage of in the sense that a meeting was organized for interested parties on the topic of expanding the project to include more countries.

The representative of Montenegro wanted to know whether a potential project was discussed at this meeting that would involve Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece. The representative of the EC informed that forest fires are a topic of special interest for the EC and an area where cooperation with DPPI should be expanded. The EC is preparing a Lessons learned workshop regarding last summers forest fires in the Mediterranean and this workshop would contribute to the creating of forest fire modules.

JFF Conclusions and Recommendations:
• All parties agreed that this is an area that warrants the elaboration of further activities,
• A working group should be established to expand the existing project to include additional participants and activities,
• EC expressed an interest to financially support the expansion of the project. 4 of 6
Then, the official signing of the MoU on DPPI Institutional Framework was organized and Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Turkey have signed it and jointed to the DPPI countries that have already signed the MoU.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER PARTNER ORGANISATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS

DPPI SEE Advisory Board Croatia gave a report on the Advisory Board meeting that was held the previous day. Representatives from 8 countries were present (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark, Turkey, Greece, Sweden) and Croatia as the Chair-in-Office; five international organisations (Aidmatrix; UNISDR, UNOCHA, European Commission, RCC).

Croatia briefly informed on the institutional issues:
1. The Memorandum of Understanding on DPPI Institutional Framework – Bosnia and Herzegovina has still not officially taken on the role of depositary; as soon as this is resolved the signatory countries will receive an authorized copy of the signed MoU so that they can commence with the ratification process,
2. With the resignation of the Head of the Secretariat a call for nominations for this post will be circulated by the CiO to signatory countries (RCC will assist),
3. The contract with IOM regarding their bank account support services will be extended to the end of June by the time that RCC will be fully operational and will be able to take on this support function for DPPI.

Croatia gave an overview of the projects currently underway as well as those that need refreshing:
1. (DMTP) – a total of 15 events is planned for this year
2. Joint Fire- fighting in SEE – should be expanded
3. Joint emergency response unit (floods) – should be reactivated; donors could be sought
4. Seismic mapping – going as planned
5. Hydro met mapping – should be initiated with UNISDR and the World Bank
6. PREMIAN – data base; related to the Seveso II Directive

The European Commission (EC) has exposed that there is different possibilities that EC could help DPPI activities so good projects on regional level are welcome.

DEMA has informed on the seminar that will be held in Serbia (with the support of the Danish Government) on the topic of hazardous materials.

The Aidmatrix foundation has reminded of the presentation on the Aidmatrix project given in Zagreb to a wider audience.

SRSA has informed on the preliminary meeting that was held with the Head of the DPPI Secretariat regarding the possibility of a more active involvement of SRSA in the DMTP. It was supported by an interest of SRSA to be a partner in DPPI SEE activities and it’s confirmed in the letter that SRSA already has submitted to the DPPI SEE Secretariat.
UN/ISDR and UNOCHA have expressed their willingness to support the definition of specific training projects for the entire region through CADRI and with the support of SRSA.
Seminar on Strengthening EU Cooperation with Candidate Countries and Western Balkan Countries

Slovenia gave a presentation on their goals in their capacity as the Presidency of the EU in the first half of 2008. One of their priorities is to strengthen cooperation between the EU and Western Balkan countries. To this end they organised a Seminar on this topic held in Bled on 24-26 February. The aims of the seminar were: to support closer integration of Candidate Countries into EU activities in the field of civil protection and to facilitate their activities in the EU accession process; to enable better understanding of the current status and development of national disaster management systems in the Candidate Countries and Western Balkan countries and to provide further support in their European course and; to inform Candidate Countries and Western Balkan countries of EU developments in the field of civil protection. 

The EC has briefly presented the Civil Protection Mechanism including the development of modules and resolution of transport issues in rendering disaster relief. The Commission is giving the full support to the DPPI activities and expressed an interest for concrete projects and are awaiting proposals, and compliments for taken the initiative into regional ownership.

UN/ISDR presented a joint pilot course that was conducted by ISDR (CADRI), UNDP, SRSA and UNOCHA and that they are willing to make available to the DPPI. They reminded that a UNCIMIC course will be held in Romania and that there is a possibility of holding a workshop in Moldova.

OSCE Mission in B&H has informed on the Regional Conference on Cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro in Disasters and that’s scheduled for April 17 and 18 in Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Conference shall be jointly organized by the OSCE, DPPI, East West Institute and the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H and will bring together decision makers and professionals in an attempt to further strengthen regional cooperation.

The World Meteorological Organisation presented the SEE climate outlook forum and emphasized that climate changes strongly effect to hydro system of each country. The WMO has expressed wiliness to cooperate with DPPI countries in order of professional and especially expertise assistance.

The Hungarian National Directorate General for Disaster Management gave a presentation on the EU HUROMEX exercise that will be organized jointly by Hungary and Romania as a EU project in September. General Liviu -Viorel Nemes has emphasized an influence of climate changes to hydro system in Romania and it result with the floods. Besides of the internal assistance, help by neighbour countries is significant. He has pointed out a good cooperation that Romania has in relation to Hungary border.

The World Bank has pointed their active role on disaster risk reduction and disaster reduction and in this view, the World Bank is developing various instruments to support its client governments to integrate risk reduction strategies in development processes at the country and local levels, especially in countries where risks are high. In consultation with different stakeholders, the World Bank Board has approved a new partnership, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), based on three key guiding principles: the new United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) system provides coherent and coordinated approach among all global stakeholders for disaster reduction and recovery; the ongoing ISDR processes, particularly joint work programs, strengthen global advocacy, knowledge sharing; and partnerships in disaster reduction. The focus of the Facility is on building capacities at the local and national levels to disaster proof.

The Aidmatrix has shortly presented the main role of Aidmatrix Foundation in DPPI activities. It would take the subject matter of which involves the provision of certain Aidmatrix solutions to DPPI and its member countries via Internet. The Aidmatrix plans to provide DPPI and its member countries with access to end user services associated with Aidmatrix Donations Management Programme. Services will be provided via the Internet powered by compatible software and/or via a marketplace hosted by Aidmatrix.

UN/ISDR has made a presentation of CADRI/SRSA Proposal for Future Disaster Risk Reduction Training Opportunities with expected outcomes and as follows: DPPI has a regional course on Disaster Risk Reduction, based on SRSA course, but tailored to its regional training and disaster requirements; DPPI has a cadre of trainers in place within the region that can offer the course in the future and has defined a delivery and financing strategy to be able to conduct the course in the future; DMTP has a process for adapting existing courses or developing new training courses that are based on a holistic approach to disaster risk management. Ms.Joanne Burke has pointed out that three possible options for moving forward could be: 1) integrate DRR content into the design of the existing RDM course which is focused on emergency response and on emergency situations; 2) design a new course from scratch or; 3) 6 of 6 develop a new regional course by adapting an existing course that has already been tested and contextualize it to DPPI regional context and shared disaster requirements.

UN/OCHA has expressed a readiness to assist DPPI countries in order of providing guidance and contributing to the development strategy on disaster related issues, including climate changes consideration. Support contingency planning processes for anticipated disasters and as well, support the organization of regional training sessions and workshops and/or provide other expert services on disaster response preparedness topics, including adaptation to climate change.

Macedonia has offered to be the host of the next meeting as well as the next Chair in Office for 2009. The kind invitation to host the next meeting was accepted by all participants and it was agreed that the Secretariat would send a circular memo on the nomination of Macedonia for the next CIO under silence with a deadline for a decision before the next meeting.

Conclusions and Recommendations of the XVI DPPI SEE Regional Meeting:

1. The appointment of a new Head of Secretariat. A call for nominations should start as soon as possible. Croatia as CIO will together with the RCC investigate the procedure for doing this. Until that time Mrs. Vildana Bijedić in Sarajevo and Croatia as CiO will fill in the gaps so that no activity suffers during this period,
2. Ratification of the MOU should be done as soon as possible. The DPPI SEE Secretariat and Bosnia and Herzegovina will keep us informed and all countries are kindly requested to complete their internal procedure as quickly as possible.
3. The DPPI activities and DMTP as a part of activities will continue in accordance to adopted Work Plan for 2008,
4. The Joint Fire-Fighting Project shall be expanded,
5. Efforts shall be made to investigate the interest in the remaining projects so that Steering groups can be established that will guide and monitor the progress,
7. A new contract should be negotiated that would enable DPPI to utilize RCC means for administration and finance issues,

As regards DPPI SEE Streamlining, cooperation, networking with the other organizations and institutions this is of strategic importance for DPPI SEE, with a view of developing joint activities and to streamline funding for project implementation. DPPI SEE partners DPPI SEE Chair In Office, and DPPI SEE Secretariat will do their utmost to achieve a coordinated approach in view of developing joint activities and to obtain additional support to the DPPI SEE member countries.