Europe (2018)

1.1 Towards a Reform of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism The most relevant development of European Union (EU) disaster law occurred in 2018 is represented by the provisional agreement reached in December between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to revise the Decision establishing the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (hereinafter ucpm or ‘Mechanism’).1 Such an agreement opens the door to a significant reshaping of the EU cooperation in the civil protection domain, which showed, after some years passed since the Lisbon reform, some major shortcomings.2 In November 2017, after a tragic summer characterized by a series of forest fires in Portugal resulting in more than 60 deaths, the European Commission decided to propose the adoption of a new Decision amending the one establishing the Mechanism.3 In the Explanatory Memorandum annexed to the Proposal, the European Commission made it clear that the former was proposed in order to fill the gaps stressed by the Interim Evaluation of the ucpm4 and