As the formation of the new European Commission got underway, the European Committee of the Regions spokesperson on the reform of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, ECR Vice-President Adam Banaszak, met with the outgoing Commissioner Christos Stylianides to thank him, on behalf of the CoR, for five years of fruitful cooperation. The meeting, held on 5 September, was also an opportunity to talk about the latest developments in the field of disaster risk management.

Commissioner Stylianides and ECR Vice-President Adam Banaszak (Councillor for Kujawsko-Pomorskie in Poland) worked hand-in-hand on the revision of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).

The UCPM is a tool that aims to facilitate coordination between the Members States in the field of civil protection in order to improve the EU's response to natural and man-made disasters. The reform was concluded very quickly on 13 March 2019, thanks also to the active involvement of local and regional representatives at the CoR.

During the talks, Mr Banaszak welcomed the fact that the new legislation took into account a number of points proposed in the CoR opinion. These include:

• Command and control of rescue assets remaining in the hands of the Member States;
• A request for the Member States to share summaries of their risk assessments with the European Commission and to participate (on a voluntary basis) in peer reviews on the assessment of risk management capabilities. ​

The Commissioner and the CoR spokesperson agreed that the role of local and regional authorities, as well as volunteers, was "crucial when it comes to disasters", as they were the "first responders when a disaster hits".

Mr Banaszak also congratulated the Commissioner on the first successful deployment of the new rescEU assets during the August 2019 forest fires in Greece. RescEU is the strengthened EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which has a reserve that includes firefighting aircraft and helicopters.