EU emergency preparedness ministers are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss strengthening the bloc’s ability to respond to extreme weather events and geopolitical instability. According to Denmark’s Minister for Social Security and Emergency Preparedness, Torsten Schack Pedersen, the meeting aims to allow EU countries to provide input on the European Commission’s EU Preparedness Union Strategy.

The strategy, presented in March, seeks to improve the EU’s civil and military preparedness for future crises. Pedersen emphasized the necessity of increasing the ability of EU countries, both individually and collectively, to withstand a wide range of threats and risks.

The meeting is taking place shortly after the European Commission presented two key proposals from the preparedness strategy. One proposal, the EU Stockpiling Strategy, aims to improve crisis preparedness by ensuring access to medical supplies, energy equipment, and critical raw materials during emergencies. The other proposal aims to bolster the collective ability of EU countries to detect, monitor, and combat cross-border health threats.

Pedersen hopes that the meeting will enable EU countries to share their priorities for the European Commission’s strategy. He highlighted the increasing level of conflict, global competition, and uncertainty in the international order, as well as the extreme weather situations caused by climate change, as factors necessitating stronger joint preparedness.