Romanian-American collaboration in emergency situations field

The Department for Emergency Situations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Unites States of America have just started what they want to be a long collaboration, by signing a collaboration protocol on Wednesday, which stipulated, among other things, an increased resilience in responding to emergency situations and training sessions focusing on disaster management. 

The protocol has been signed by the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Dr. Raed Arafat, and the deputy manager for protection and national training from FEMA, Prof. Dr. Daniel Kaniweski, at the headquarters of the US Permanent Representation to NATO in Brussels. 

"The protocol is meant to increase the level of resilience and reduce the risk of disasters both in Romania and the United States of America, by facilitating cooperation in case of disasters and making an exchange of experience in the emergency situations field. In order to apply this protocol, DSU and FEMA will create a contact point that will allow the exchange of information at all times and facilitate steering. Moreover, the two institutions will make an exchange of experience based on the emergency situations that they will have to manage and they are going to organize seminaries and conferences to train the personnel from the emergency situations," specified the abovementioned source. 

The agreement signed by DSU and FEMA will be concluded for five years, with the possibility to prolong it. 

The collaboration between DSU and FEMA started in 2016, once with the signing of a memorandum on the organization of training sessions focusing resilience and on how to ensure continuity in case of disasters. The protocol between DSU and FEMA is also aimed at developing a training programme for the staff in the emergency situations and disaster management sector. 

The continuation of the operations represents the effort of the individual organizations to ensure the continuous functioning of the essential services during disaster time or other emergencies that may interrupt the normal functioning of operations. 

The first training session took place on November 2016 with the representatives of the DSU, General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, Presidential Administration, the Governmental Secretariat General, the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of National Defence, emergency units, with new session to follow in the years to come. AGERPRES .