EU Instruments for Emergency Response and Civil Protection Assistance during the Covid-19 Pandemic - part I

The Covid-19 pandemic was a global challenge that required global solutions. EU Member States, guided by the principles of solidarity and multilateralism, acted together to provide support to various actors in countering the negative effects of the pandemic. The EU mobilised resources to support the emergency response. A number of emergency response mechanisms have been mobilised, both within the Union's area of external action and internally. The main instruments for responding to the pandemic were EU humanitarian aid and the activities of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The aim of the article is to present the process of providing assistance to the population using the above-mentioned EU instruments in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. The main research problem is: were the EU's instruments of assistance to the population effective in the face of an emergency such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and in which situations did these instruments have a limited capacity to act? The research methods used in the article are the formal-dogmatic method and the theoretical-legal method. The EU civil assistance mechanisms in place proved to have insufficient response capacity. The pandemic relief system has highlighted the limited capacity of the European Union to respond directly to crises when the actors implementing this assistance through the usual mechanisms, show deficiencies, or when their actions are ineffective or insufficient. Consequently, the European Union, in the midst of a growing epidemic crisis, has introduced a number of changes leading to a more effective delivery of emergency assistance in the face of the current pandemic and strengthening the EU's preparedness for future emergencies.