Preliminary Planning Meeting
Sofia, Bulgaria
16-18 September 2024
Executive summary
The purpose of this Preliminary Planning Meeting was to have a mutual understanding between the co-organisers, Bulgaria and NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC), on the planning, conduct and evaluation of an emergency response field and command post exercise in Bulgaria. The participants touched upon all the facets of the planning and conduct of an emergency management exercise. It is expected that the exercise could attract ca. 2000+ participants and 18-25 international teams. During the meeting, the participants visited potential bases of operations and an exercise site near the city of Montana
Agreed exercise objectives:
| 1. Build resilience through improved disaster preparedness, planning, prevention and response, and strengthen the Republic of Bulgaria’s capability to manage complex emergencies. 2. Test host nation support2 procedures, the capacity of Bulgaria and outline the way to improve it. 3. Exchange of knowledge and good practices on the coordination and response capacities of the participating states and organizations. 4. Help Bulgaria, other Allies and partners improve their preparedness, ability and interoperability to manage emergencies. 5. Help Bulgaria and other Allies build up their national and collective resilience in tangible ways, in line with the seven Baseline Requirements. 6. Build up cooperation between civilian and military actors in responding to a range of crises. 7. Encourage regional cooperation between Allies and partners, and with NATO, including by practicing the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Facilitation of Vital Civil Cross Border Transport. 8. Contribute to NATO’s defence capacity-building support to partners, especially those who have participation in EADRCC exercises as ITPP goals (Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Tunisia, and Mongolia). 9. Familiarise NATO Civil Experts with the EADRCC and explore new ways that Civil Experts can support NATO through the EADRCC. 10. Send a public signal to audiences in Allied and partner countries about the value of cooperation through NATO. |
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Agreed exercise elements
• Urban Search and Rescue
• Rope rescue
• Host Nation Support
• CBRN
• Public Information, media and countering disinformation campaigns (incl. fake media messages)
• Water search and rescue (night-time operations)
• Emergency Medical Teams, also with the Balkan Medical Task Force (tbc)
• Work with cultural heritage sites
• Activation of EADRCC
