These risks and threats disregard borders, and cannot be tackled in isolation. 

Acting together with Member States, the EU will work to:

• Better protect the vital services which are essential to the functioning of our societies and ensure populations are prepared.
• Increase preventative measures through better coordination between civil protection, the military and crisis response systems– to be more efficient when a crisis occurs.
• Further integrate resilience and preparedness into external partnerships, to step up work with partners to address new risks new risks and threats, such as cyber and hybrid attacks, and promote cooperation on resilience in multilateral fora.

The Preparedness Union Strategy includes taking a more proactive, whole-of-government approach to crisis management, across both civilian and military sectors. By supporting the ability of EU Member States’ to be alert to potential issues and crises ahead of time, the EU aims to improve its overall resilience to both expected and unforeseen events.

Preparedness is also, first and foremost, about people. The Strategy’s whole-of-society approach means that local communities, civil society organisations, business and social partners, academics and other essential actors will play a role in fostering a culture of preparedness across the EU. 

Better preparation also reduces the financial, social, and environmental impacts of these events, and allows citizens across the EU to become more able to adapt to a changing world. 

As a global security actor, the EU works with NATO, the United Nations, and other partners to protect global and regional security, resilience, and contribute to shared objectives.

The Preparedness Union Strategy focuses on seven crucial areas: 

• Foresight and anticipation
• Resilience of societal functions
• Population preparedness
• Public-private cooperation
• Civil-military cooperation
• Crisis response coordination and
• External partnerships.

The EU, together with Member States, will implement the Preparedness Union Strategy via a series of 30 planned actions linked to the objectives. 

This includes fostering a culture of preparedness and societal resilience, the revision of the Union Civil Protection mechanism or the proposal of a stockpiling strategy. Regarding our diplomatic engagement, it will be important to embed resilience and preparedness into the EU’s external action.

This means, for instance, enhancing dialogue and co-operation on resilience and preparedness with partner countries and organisations. We will step up our engagement with partners, including to tackle cyber and hybrid threats, as well as foreign information manipulation and interference. This will help better prevent and deter threats, and promote our shared objectives in multilateral forums.

The Strategy also aligns with and build on existing key EU initiatives, including the Internal Security Strategy, the White Paper for European Defence, the EU Climate Adaptation Strategy, the Critical Medicines Act, European Democracy Shield and the Union of Skills.

The Niinistö Report on Preparedness and Readiness of the EU  concluded that strengthening Europe’s civilian and military preparedness and readiness to address today’s growing security challenges – in health, migration, technology security, climate, defence or the economy – is a matter of urgency. The report called for a profound change of mindset, and a shift in the way we understand and prioritise preparedness across the Union. It also recognised that preparedness is not only a national responsibility but a shared European endeavour requiring stronger role for the Union in coordinating and supporting Member States in this area.

This Strategy also builds on the EU Strategic Agenda 2024-2029 and the European Council conclusions of June 2023, March 2024, and December 2024, the European Commission’s Political priorities 2024-2029.

Further information

Press release: EU Preparedness Union Strategy to prevent and react to emerging threats and crises 

Joint Communication on Preparedness Union Strategy

Annex of the Joint Communication on Preparedness Union Strategy

Questions and answers about the Preparedness Union Strategy.

Read the factsheet on the Preparedness Union Strategy.