Funded by the European Union
Within the framework of the European Union (EU) Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Risk Mitigation Initiative, representatives of the Government of Jordan, the European Union and the United Nations (UN) as well as several regional partners and European Union Member States will convene on 25 June 2013 in Amman for the Official Inauguration of the CBRN CoE Regional Secretariat in the Middle East within the premises of the Middle East Scientific Institute for Security - at the Royal Scientific Society.
The EU CBRN CoE is a worldwide European Union initiative jointly implemented with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) with a budget amounting to 95 million Euros for 2009 – 2013.
The Initiative aims to mitigate CBRN risks of criminal, accidental or natural origin by promoting a coherent policy, improving coordination and preparedness at national and regional levels and by offering a comprehensive approach covering legal, scientific, enforcement and technical issues. The Initiative mobilizes national, regional and international resources to develop a coherent CBRN policy at all levels, thereby aiming to ensure an effective response.
The Initiative involves over 60 countries and has been launched in 8 different regions of the world, namely: African Atlantic Façade; Central Asia; Eastern and Central Africa; Gulf Cooperation Council Countries; Middle East; North Africa; South East Asia; South East Europe, Southern Caucasus, Moldova and Ukraine. Each of these regions will soon have fully operational Secretariats. The Regional Secretariats ensure cooperation and coordination with partner countries and are responsible for supporting them with the identification of needs, the formulation of regional project proposals, the development of national action plans and the implementation of the projects.
As a result of the on-going activities of EU CBRN CoE initiative in the Middle East, 12 projects – addressing countries’ needs - were launched in 2013.
The latest project being launched in the Middle East region concerns Strengthening Capacities in CBRN Response and in Chemical and Medical Emergency, and will be implemented by EU Member States Agencies in close cooperation with local authorities.
The overall objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive inter-country (Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon), inter-agency structure for the coordination, establishment and implementation of CBRN incident response throughout the region. It will address national needs in the countries by improving the existing CBRN emergency response capacity and provide comprehensive technology solutions and training in prevention, preparedness and response.
For more information:
CBRN Centres of Excellence website:
http://www.cbrn-coe.eu/
European Commission, Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace website:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/fpi/what-we-do/instrument_contributing_to_stability_and_peace_en.htm