The EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement is a
Partial Agreement of the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
, set up in 1987 by Resolution (87) 2 of the
Committee of Ministers
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe ( French: ''Comité des ministres du Conseil de l'Europe'') or Committee of Ministers ( French: ''Comité des ministres'') is the Council of Europe's decision-making body. It comprises the Forei ...
. Its full name is "Co-operation Group for the Prevention of, Protection Against, and Organisation of Relief in Major Natural and Technological Disasters (EUR-OPA)".
Its aims are to develop
disaster prediction research,
risk management, post-crisis analysis and rehabilitation.
The Agreement supports the development of specialised scientific and technical centres on both sides of the
Mediterranean. Many of the research activities are organised through a network of these centres.
It also includes a
European Alert System
The European Alert System (sometimes referred to as the European Alarm System or European Warning System) is an earthquake warning system for member states of the Council of Europe's EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement.
Seismic alerts are provided b ...
, which is an earthquake disaster alert and rapid response system, run by the Strasbourg secretariat in cooperation with the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
Members
The agreement is known as an "open" agreement, States do not have to be member States of the Council of Europe in order to join. As of September 2011, 23 Council of Europe member States and 3 Non-member States of the Council of Europe are party to the agreement. Several International organisations also participate.
Council of Europe member States party to the EUR-OPA treaty (as of September 2011) are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Greece, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
non-members party to EUR-OPA are Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco. Participating international organisations include the
European Union, the
World Health Organization,
UNOCHA
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaste ...
,
UNESCO and the
.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Monaco joined the Agreement before they joined the Council of Europe. Italy was a member of the Agreement from 1987 to 2002.
Israel was also a member until 1996.
Ministers and correspondents
The Agreement organises a ministerial session every two or three years, which sets the priorities for activities. The latest of these, the 11th session, took place on 31 October 2006 in
Marrakech
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
on the theme "Protecting societies from disasters through preparedness and prevention: a political priority".
A network of permanent correspondents meets regularly between these sessions to coordinate the activities.
The Agreement functions with a small secretariat, based at the Council of Europe headquarters in
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
in the Agora building.
External links
Major Hazards Agreement websiteContribution of the EUR-OPA Major HazardsAgreement of the Council of Europe, F. Tondre, 2005, Retrieved 18-10-2008OCHA Disaster Response Preparedness Toolkit
Further reading
Early Warning Systems for Natural Disaster Reduction (International IDNDR-conference on Early Warning Systems for the Reduction of Natural Disasters, held at the GeoForschungsZentrum in Potsdam, Germany from 7–11 September 1998). Published by Springer, 2003, ,
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eur-Opa Major Hazards Agreement
International political organizations
Council of Europe