Eligible prevention and preparedness actions
Article 21
1. The following prevention and preparedness actions shall be eligible for financial assistance: (a) co-financing of projects, studies, workshops, surveys and similar actions and activities referred to in Article 5; (b) co-financing peer reviews, referred to in point (d) of Article 6 and point (j) of Article 8; (c) maintaining the functions provided by the ERCC, in accordance with point (a) of Article 8; (d) preparing for the mobilisation and dispatch of the expert teams referred to in point (d) of Article 8 and Article 17 and developing and maintaining a surge capacity through a network of trained experts of Member States, referred to in point (f) of Article 8; (e) establishing and maintaining the CECIS and tools to enable communication and sharing of information between the ERCC and the contact points of the Member States and of other participants in the context of the Union Mechanism; (f) contributing to the development of transnational detection, early warning and alert systems of European interest, in order to enable a rapid response as well as to promote the inter-linkage between national early warning and alert systems and their linkage to the ERCC and the CECIS. Those systems shall take into account and build upon existing and future information, monitoring or detection sources and systems; (g) planning response operations under the Union Mechanism, in accordance with Article 10; (h) supporting the preparedness activities described in Article 13; (i) developing the EERC, as referred to in Article 11, in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article. (j) identifying gaps in the EERC in accordance with Article 12 and supporting Member States in addressing those gaps by co-financing new response capacities, up to a maximum of 20 % of the eligible costs, provided that: (i) the need for new capacities is confirmed by risk assessments; (ii) the gap identification process set out in Article 12 demonstrates that those capacities are not available to Member States; (iii) those capacities are developed by Member States, either acting individually or through a consortium; (iv) those capacities are committed to the voluntary pool for a minimum period of two years; and (v) such co-financing of those capacities is cost-effective. Where appropriate, preference shall be given to consortia of Member States cooperating on a common risk; (k) ensuring the availability of logistical support for the expert teams referred to in Article 17(1); (l) facilitating the coordination of Member States' pre-positioning of disaster response capacities inside the Union in accordance with point (g) of Article 8; and (m) supporting the provision of advice on prevention and preparedness measures through the deployment of an expert team on site, upon the request of a Member State, third country, the United Nations or its agencies, as referred to in Article 5(2) and Article 13(3). 2. The eligibility for financial assistance for the action referred to in point (i) of paragraph 1 shall be limited to: (a) costs at Union level of setting up and managing the EERC and the associated processes set out in Article 11; (b) costs of obligatory training courses, exercises and workshops necessary for the certification of Member States' response capacities for the purposes of the EERC ("certification costs"). The certification costs may consist of unit costs or lump sums determined per type of capacity, covering up to 100 % of the eligible costs; (c) non-recurrent costs necessary to upgrade Member States' response capacities from their purely national use to a state of readiness and availability that makes them deployable as part of the EERC, in accordance with the quality requirements of the voluntary pool and recommendations formulated in the certification process ("adaptation costs"). Those adaptation costs may include costs related to interoperability of modules and other response capacities, autonomy, self-sufficiency, transportability, packaging and similar costs, as well as the costs of forming multinational response capacities (for example workshops, trainings, development of common methodologies, standards, procedures and similar activities), provided that those costs specifically relate to the capacities' participation in the voluntary pool. They shall not cover the costs of the equipment or human resources necessary to initially set-up the response capacities or on-going maintenance or running costs. Those adaptation costs may consist of unit costs or lump sums determined per type of capacity, covering up to 100 % of the eligible costs, provided this does not exceed 30 % of the average cost of developing the capacity; and (d) costs of establishing and managing framework contracts, framework partnership agreements or similar arrangements to address temporary shortcomings in extraordinary disasters, taking into account a multi-hazard approach. The funding under point (d) of this paragraph: (i) may cover the costs or fees necessary to design, prepare, negotiate, conclude and manage the contracts or arrangements as well as the costs of developing standard operating procedures and exercises to ensure the effective use of assets. Such funding may also cover a maximum of 40 % of the costs of ensuring rapid access to those assets; (ii) shall not cover the costs of purchasing or developing new response capacities, nor the cost of operating these additional capacities in a disaster situation. The costs of operating those additional capacities in a disaster situation shall be borne by the Member States requesting the assistance; (iii) shall not exceed 10 % of the financial envelope set out in Article 19(1). In the event that the 10 % ceiling is reached before the end of the programming period, and when required to ensure the appropriate functioning of the Union Mechanism, that 10 % ceiling may, by means of implementing acts, be exceeded by up to 5 percentage points. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 33(2).