EMERGENCY REGIONAL CAPABILITIES, IN THE SPIRIT OF „SMART DEFENSE“

The military involvement in Civil Emergencies (CE) and different natural disasters is a part of their institutional mission. The practical application through out the years has revealed that the Armed Forces have fulfilled this mission successfully, despite the fact that this is not their primary concern/mission. The evaluation and the assessment of the Civil Emergency involvement of the military is a new trend that occurred with the last years thus assisting to other Governmental agencies through the implementation of "Smart Defense" initiatives. The derived tasks from Struga Meeting in June 2012 outline some priorities that are dedicated to strengthen regional collaboration based on a common interest. As history implies, the Balkan region is prone to natural disaster of all sorts. For this reason it must not be excluded in the future. Besides the fact that these natural disasters are hard or even more impossible to predict, we have to take into consideration that they are not known and don't have any limitations that can reach outside the region, even beyond. Harvesting the knowledge and study of the Allied army practices, including those of the region, the results imply that each country in region has taken its precautions in facing different emergencies and catastrophes. Regardless of this fact, in order to face variety of emergencies or catastrophes, it is necessary to implement a high level of regional collaboration of all structures and actors that are engaged in this field, including the increase of collaboration between regional militaries.