MaltaMedia.com

Together with nine other European Union Member States, Malta has participated in the EU’s three-day Emergency Crisis Coordination Arrangements Exercise (CCAEX10). The exercise was aimed at testing Member States’ cooperation in the event of a real emergency or attack.

The exercise was staged around a fictitious Euro 2010 Football Championship held in Poland and Ukraine which was the target of a biological terrorist attack. The staged attack infected thousands of people from Cyprus, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, with a contagious disease that had far-reaching consequences on the state of Member States’ systems of public health, medicine stockpiles, transport, security, communication, border control and public order.

Set up in 2006, the EU’s Crisis Coordination Arrangements allow the European Union to quickly respond to crises that engage the entire Union or the interests of several member states together with the responsibilities of the EU and where a common response is necessary.

The 2010 exercise affected four main political sectors: namely health, transport and border control, public order and citizens’ protection; and societal disruption. Participating countries faced challenges related to the identification of the terrorist cell responsible, the quick spread of infection, mass panic high absenteeism rates at schools and workplaces, economic disruption and social unrest.

A team was set up in Malta in order to ensure a rapid response to any challenge and to ensure that this is communicated to other Member States. Malta’s response was led through representatives from the Civil Protection Department, the Police Force, the Armed Forces of Malta, the Health Department, the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the National Counter-Terrorism Coordinator.

During a crisis a ‘Steering Group’ is convened at European level in order to provide strategic thinking and political oversight in response to the crisis and to prepare a proposal for action by EU Member States.

The ‘Steering Group’ is chaired by the rotating Presidency and is made up of European Commission and Council representatives, EU Agencies, the EU Joint Situation Centre, media experts and directly affected Member States’ Permanent Representatives, in Malta’s case, Mr Richard Cachia Caruana.