Brussels asks EU citizens to put together a 72-hour emergency kit to face crises

The emergency kit should include food, water, and copies of important identity documents, among other items.

The EU wants every member state to develop a 72-hour survival kit for citizens to face any new crisis that might emerge as part of its Preparedness Union Strategy which also calls for more stockpiling of essential supplies and for improved civilian-military cooperation.

The strategy unveiled on Wednesday by the European Commission includes a list of 30 concrete actions it says EU member states need to take to boost their preparedness against potential future crises ranging from natural disasters and industrial accidents to attacks by malicious actors in the cyber or military domains.

"In the EU we must think different because the threats are different, we must think bigger because the threats are bigger too," Hadja Lahbib, the Commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, told reporters.

Roxana Mînzatu, the Commission for preparedness, speaking alongside her, added that the bloc is "not starting from scratch".

"The COVID pandemic has shown that the added value of acting together in solidarity, in coordination, in the European Union framework is absolutely crucial, This is what makes us more efficient, makes us stronger," she said.

One of the key areas identified is the need to enhance population preparedness with the Commission urging member states to ensure citizens have an emergency kit that allows them to be self-sufficient for a minimum of 72 hours in the event they are cut off from essential supplies.

Several member states already have such guidelines with varying timeframes. France, for instance, calls for a 72-hour survival kit that includes food, water, medicines, a portable radio, a flashlight, spare batteries, chargers, cash, copies of important documents including medical prescriptions, spare keys, warm clothes and basic tools such as utility knives.

The Commission's plan aims to harmonise guidelines across the 27 member states in order to make sure that "everyone, at different levels have, to put it this way, a manual of what to do when the sirens go off," said a senior EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The level of preparedness across the Union, across different member states is very different. Preparedness is definitely understood in different ways across member states," the same official added.

Increased stockpiles

Another key focus of the strategy is to increase stockpiling of essential equipment and supplies, medical countermeasures such as vaccines, medicines and medical equipment, critical raw materials so industrial production of strategic equipment can continue, and energy equipment.

Brussels has already put forward a proposal to boost the stockpiling of essential minerals and is due to release, before the summer, a stockpiling strategy for critical medicines, a competence that lies with member states.

The Preparedness strategy aims to "bring this together and to identify how the stockpiles interact, what are the common experiences to learn from each other," another senior EU official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

This could entail developing more stockpiles at the EU level for civil protection that would add to existing stocks from the RescEU mechanism. But "some of these could be at national level, some of them are virtual, basically agreements with the private sector, some of them are physical".

"That's a discussion we need to have: what's the best possible configuration to guarantee the ultimate objective of continuation of these vital societal functions under all circumstances," the official added.