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editorial Natural Disasters cannot be prevented from happening and do not acknowledge country borders. The consequences of these catastrophes are destroying of lives, goods, infrastructure and affected economic situation. The European Union intends to facilitate the co-operation between the Member States in the field of civil protection. The better the preparedness the better will be the handling in critical times. Two experts will talk about their experiences with natural disasters. Within the Interview with Simon Langdon - Director CEDARthree Limited, UK- he explains more about Crisis Management and the responsibility authorities. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) in Germany describes their mission during the Poland flood in June 2010. With high performance pumps the team of THW pumped down more then one billion litre water from the overflowed polish regions. Public Procurement remains on the EU agenda. The most common and frequent irregularities in applying European funding legislation are in the field of public procurement. Wylde Declan -Finance Director, Railway Procurement Agency, Ireland- identifies the mayor managing procurement risk within public infrastructure projects. Public Procurement does also play a role in the field of State Aid. EU Funding and State Aid are important for the realisation of different projects from new highways to playgrounds. Dr Péter Staviczky -Ministry of National Development, Hungary- explains in his essay the Cumulation of State Aid and indicated that responsibilities have to act very carefully when choosing which types of aid they apply for. Legal notice EUROPE TODAY wishes to thank all the contributors to the publication. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of EUROPE TODAY or other people named. Please remember that all contributions are not in any way endorsed by the European Academy. EUROPE TODAY assumes no responsibility for the use that may be made of the information contained in this publication or any errors that may remain in the texts, despite the care taken in preparing them. For the latest information about EUROPE TODAY, check out our website www.euroacad.eu. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Photo by Federal Agency for Technical Relief Title: Tarnobrzeg (Poland), Flood 2010 09 / 2010 In times of Credit Crisis the European Commission encourages a wider use of Public Private Partnerships structures (PPP) and pointed out the possibilities of co-financing by EU funds. Kovařovicová Eva -Ministry of Finance, Czech Republic- gives us a practical insight in using PPP and EU-funds. Her essay is about financing the hospital project in Prague. The European Council agreed to better protection of Intellectual Property on their meeting mid of September 2010 in Berlin. The exchange of knowledge is a central factor for success. Therefore companies and research work together in cooperation’s. Those R&D projects need a safe and sound legal design of contracts. Dr. Douglas Robertson - Director of Business Development and Regional Affairs, University of Newcastle, UK – write in his essay about the Research and Development contracts in Europe – a jungle or a well-tended landscape? In our rubric EDEN – hidden treasures – you can discover Slovenia’s river Kolpa this time. This most southern extremity of Slovenia is a special aquatic, natural and cultural area. Enjoy your reading! Yours, Stephanie Matthes Editor-in-chief imprint EUROPE TODAY is published by European Academy for Taxes, Economics & Law. Editor-in-chief: Stephanie Matthes Authors, Interview Partners: Simon Langdon, Federal Agency for Technical Relief, Declan Wylde, Dr Péter Staviczky, Eva Kovařovicová, Dr. Douglas Robertson, Maša Puklavec, Rolf-Roger Hoeppner Art director: Harald Zimmer Published 7 times per year EUROPE TODAY is available in English. Subscription is free. For more information, please contact European Academy for Taxes, Economics & Law. Phone: ++49 – 30 802080 256 Fax: ++49 – 30 802080 250 E-mail: stephanie.matthes@euroakad.eu Comments and suggestions are always welcome! Content 02 editorial 03 topic Disaster preparedness Management Crisis Management Interview with Simon Langdon, Director CEDARthree Limited, UK Floods in poland 2010 - tHw high-capacity-pumps lower water levels Federal Agency for Technical Relief, Germany 06 topic public procurement Managing procurement risk within public infrastructure projects Essay by Declan Wylde Finance Director, Railway Procurement Agency, Ireland 09 topic state aid Cumulating state aid – a pitfall for the nonprepared? Essay by Dr Péter Staviczky, Ministry of National Development, Hungary 10 topic public private partnership ppp in the Czech republic - Central Military Hospital prague´s project Essay by Ing. Eva Kovařovicová, Ministry of Finance, Czech Republic 11 topic r&D Contracts research and Development Contracts in europe – a jungle or a well-tended landscape? Essay by Dr. Douglas Robertson, Director of Business Development and Regional Affairs, University of Newcastle, UK 12 publication recommendation 13 Upcoming events 15 eDen: hidden treasures Slovenia Winner 2010 - The River Kolpa 17 Job Corner 2
09 / 2010 Crisis Management - interview with simon Langdon Director CEDARthree Limited, The Crisis Management Specialists what are the most important steps after a Disaster happens? To understand the scale of the disaster. Firstly to assess the impact of the disaster on people. The safety of people is always the first issue and of prime concern however the disaster may have been caused; whether it be natural or man-made. Secondly to assess the impact to infrastructure; to buildings, transport, communications and any other equipment including IT and data and thirdly to assess the impact to business. Of course it depends how wide-scale the disaster is and who or what it has affected in order to be able to assess the impact to business. A very wide scale disaster such as the recent monsoon floods in Pakistan or the earthquake in Haiti may impact the business of national, regional and local government as well as national industries and individual businesses. Once the scale of the disaster is known priorities can be identified and an action plan developed for the implementation of the immediate response. Of course the better prepared an organisation is to respond to a disaster the quicker and more effective the immediate response will be. Ideally there will be a Disaster Management Plan which is understood by those who are responsible for implementing it, the plan is practiced regularly and can be invoked quickly when disaster strikes. It should be remembered that very often in a disaster the immediate response comes not from the Emergency Services but the people caught up in the disaster and their neighbours. It is the local people who are on hand and human nature and compassion compels them to respond. The Emergency Services may arrive in minutes and take over coordinating the response but the initial re-action and response comes from those at or very near the disaster scene. How many times do those responsible for crisis management have to act/ react? It is difficult to say and it depends! It depends on the risk for instance. I have recently returned from the Philippines, one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, where they have 22 active volcanoes and volcanic activity and earthquakes are quite frequent. They are also subject to more than 20 typhoons per year, to floods and landslides and the list goes on. The invocation of Crisis or Disaster Management is not an everyday occurrence but it is quite regular. If your business is in a location which is prone to terrorism then it depends how active the terrorism is. London in the 80s’ and 90s’ suffered a number of terrorist attacks; now thankfully they are much less frequent although a significant threat remains. The multiple terrorist attack in London in July 2005 was a stark reminder on how sudden a disaster can strike and how important it is to have a coordinated disaster response plan. Generally, however, although disasters or crisis are not frequent, their very nature means that it is often impossible to predict when, where or how a disaster will strike. It is therefore important to be prepared. When disaster strikes is not the time to be drawing up your disaster management plans! EU helpers in Haiti, 2010 How many people are involved in a Crisis Management process? who are the decision makers? It is good practice to develop a Crisis Management Team (CMT) comprised of representatives from all the main departments within an organisation. As I mentioned before the key areas to address in a crisis are People, Assets and Business so the CMT will need a representative from HR for the People issue, Facilities Management, Security and IT for the Assets issues and Operations for the business. That is 5 members of the CMT. There would also be a chairman, a secretary to take the minutes of the meeting and someone representing Communications or Public Relations. That makes 8 members. Additionally organisations may have other key departments depending on their business such as Engineering, 3 Customer Services, Transport etc. It is preferable, however, to keep membership of the CMT to no more than 12 members otherwise decision making can become too cumbersome. Flood in Madeira, 2010 Decision making in a crisis is crucial. The CMT as a group are the decision makers, however, in a split decision the chairman will have the deciding vote. Crisis Management is better conducted as an autocratic process rather than a democratic one as time is often at a premium. There is no real time for lengthy discussions and prevaricating. Ideally key decisions that may have to be made in a crisis should be pre-identified as this saves time. A workshop for senior management is a good idea to identify what decisions may have to be made in a crisis and when, where the information will come from in order to make the decision, who has the responsibility for making the decision and whether that responsibility needs to be delegated e.g. from the CEO to the Chairman of the CMT. Finally who needs to be told of the decision once it has been made. which bodies have to work together and how? Within an organisation it is good practice to have three levels of command and control, sometimes known as Gold or Strategic i.e. the CEO or equivalent, Silver or Tactical – typically the CMT and Bronze or Operational – at departmental level or at the scene of the disaster. So within an organisation there is coordination and team work at every level. Disaster or crisis response is not just one persons responsibility it is everyone’s responsibility. Outside an organisation it is the major stakeholders who should be involved or at least informed. The Emergency Services are an obvious example but also local authorities, neighbouring businesses, the media, suppliers, customers, shareholders
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