- disaster
means any situation which has or may have a severe impact on people, the environment, or property, including cultural heritage;
- early warning
means the timely and effective provision of information that allows action to be taken to avoid or reduce risks and the adverse impacts of a disaster, and to facilitate preparedness for an effective response;
- host nation support
means any action undertaken in the preparedness and response phases by the country receiving or sending assistance, or by the Commission, to remove foreseeable obstacles to international assistance offered through the Union Mechanism.
- logistical support
means the essential equipment or services required for expert teams referred to in Article 17(1) to perform their tasks, inter alia communication, temporary accommodation, food or in-country transport;
- module
means a self-sufficient and autonomous predefined task- and needs-driven arrangement of Member States’ capabilities or a mobile operational team of the Member States, representing a combination of human and material means that can be described in terms of its capacity for intervention or by the task(s) it is able to undertake;
- participating State
means a third country participating in the Union Mechanism in accordance with Article 28(1).
- preparedness
means a state of readiness and capability of human and material means, structures, communities and organisations enabling them to ensure an effective rapid response to a disaster, obtained as a result of action taken in advance;
- prevention
means any action aimed at reducing risks or mitigating adverse consequences of a disaster for people, the environment and property, including cultural heritage;
- response
means any action taken upon request for assistance under the Union Mechanism in the event of an imminent disaster, or during or after a disaster, to address its immediate adverse consequences;
- response capacity
means assistance that may be provided through the Union Mechanism upon request;
- risk assessment
means the overall cross-sectoral process of risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation undertaken at national or appropriate sub-national level;
- risk management capability
means the ability of a Member State or its regions to reduce, adapt to or mitigate risks (impacts and likelihood of a disaster), identified in its risk assessments to levels that are acceptable in that Member State.
- Union disaster resilience goals
means non-binding objectives established in the area of civil protection to support prevention and preparedness actions for the purposes of improving the capacity of the Union and its Member States to withstand the effects of a disaster which causes or is capable of causing multi-country transboundary effects;