Rapporteurs Adam Banaszak and Harvey Siggs, as the spokespersons of local and regional authorities in Europe on disaster risk reduction, helped launch a five year cooperation between the European Committee of the Regions and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

The ceremony, which took place on 13 October on the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR), saw the CoR's President Markku Markkula and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction Robert Glassser jointly sign the framework which will be implemented on local and regional levels. The ceremony started with statements made by the Committee of the Regions rapporteurs Adam Banaszak and Harvey Siggs, who outlined the need for coordinated action.

The Action Plan aims to translate the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (a voluntary international agreement to disaster management policy and operations) into ideas for local and regional governments.

As the CoR's rapporteur for the opinion on a 'Post 2015 Hyogo Framework for Action', the ECR's Harvey Siggs (Leader of Mendip District Council and Member of Somerset County Council) helped bring together the views of local and regional authorities across Europe to create an opinion on disaster resilience. Cllr Siggs then presented this common position at the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai in 2015.

Commenting at the official signing ceremony, Cllr Siggs said: "The CoR opinion on disaster resilience prepared under my leadership underlined the need for a focus on prevention, preparedness and resilience, whilst highlighting the key role of local and regional authorities."

"With natural disasters costing the EU close to €100 billion since 2005 and affectiving over 30 million people of which 150,000 have been killed, this goes to show that disasters are only going to continue in coming years.

"I am therefore pleased to see the UN and the EUs assembly of local and regional representatives coming together today for this important signing ceremony."

Also in attendance was the ECR's Adam Banaszak, who has recently been appointed CoR rapporteur on an 'Action Plan on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030'.

Having already worked on improving EU instruments for responding to and managing disasters as rapporteur on the 'Union's Civil Protection Mechanism' in 2012, Mr Banaszak said he was "looking forward" to taking steps to help the EU manage risks and achieve resilience.

Mr Banaszak said: "More than one third of the EU's budget is dedicated to the EU's cohesion policy and one could argue that it is our moral obligation to invest with resilience in mind. If we do not invest with resilience in mind and if EU money delivers unsafe buildings, then we are risking citizens' lives – and that is unacceptable."

Read more about this at the Committee of the Regions website.