Finland wants the European Union and member states to increase crisis management capacities to avoid getting blind-sided by future upheavals, emergency talks and potential cracks in the bloc’s unity, according to a non-paper seen by Euractiv.

This European Commission mandate has weathered several storms, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine, and the energy crisis. Now, Finland has proposed creating a ‘Preparedness Union’.

“We ask the Commission to develop and publish the first EU Strategy for a Preparedness Union, [which] should be based on a whole-of-society approach, where the needs and contributions of all policy sectors are taken into account,” Finish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told the European Parliament earlier this week.

“We are living in a time where practically all policy fields are linked to our security, and without security, we cannot ensure a prosperous future for Europe,” Orpo said, adding:

“Preparedness for crises is one of the cornerstones of security.”

A mix of contingency planning, processes, and legislation in place to avoid the countries and institutions being caught by surprise would prepare the bloc best for the worst security crisis, according to a non-paper seen by Euractiv.

“The main goal would be to ensure that the EU and its member states are better prepared for increasingly complex, cross-border and multi-faceted crises that often occur simultaneously,” the paper says.

In the four-page document sent to member states, Finland lists 50 areas in which the bloc could have an impact in coordinating crisis management and prevention.

It includes traditional themes of security of supply, nuclear threats, and terrorism, as well as newer forms of emergencies where civilian preparedness plays a large part, such as transportation, access to energy, telecommunication via cables or space, water and food security, training of competences, media literacy to counter disinformation and migration flux.

“The Preparedness Union Strategy would offer tools and a framework to map out the needs of each sector to form a coherent preparedness policy,” the non-paper states.

In this new area of competence, EU institutions should have access to intelligence gathering and analysis, produce threat scenarios and risk analysis, regular assessment of the EU countries’ readiness, and exercises.

The document also states that Europeans should develop joint capacities in certain areas without specifying which or why.

While current Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič’s mandate is focused on post-crisis relief, humanitarian aid and natural disaster response, the bloc currently lacks a person with an overarching authority on all sectors of society.

A vice-president of the European Commission should also be put in charge of the follow-up and implementation of the strategy.

In addition, Ukraine’s experience in fighting off Russia’s full-scale invasion and its government working with the civilian industry to protect critical infrastructure and guarantee access to primary needs like food, water and transportation should be taken into account, the paper adds.

The EU should “systematically collect Ukraine’s experiences of operating in exceptional circumstances and utilise those experiences in the EU’s preparedness work in all sectors”, it states.

The core of the ‘Preparedness Union’ would then focus on increasing cooperation, peer-to-peer learning, and better coordination.

Finnland has long been seen as a model, with strategies covering all sectors of society, both public and private, and goes beyond physical defences in including societal resilience, which is critical in facing both conventional and hybrid threats.

However, the idea could create friction between EU member states as larger EU member states with significant financial resources and close ties to national business leaders—such as France and Germany—as well as those with tangible national preparedness strategies—such as Eastern Europeans—are likely to argue against the Brussels institutions encroaching on their competences.

Read more with Euractiv

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