Joint Proposal for a Council Decision on the arrangements for the implementation by the Union of the Solidarity Clause

Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) contains a new provision for a ‘Solidarity Clause’. Under this provision the Union and its Member States must act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a Member State is the object of a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster.

Due to the wide scope of the Treaty article, the arrangements for implementing the Solidarity Clause cover a wide number of policy areas and instruments. These include the EU Internal Security Strategy, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism and the Civil Protection Financial Instrument, the EU Solidarity Fund; the health security initiative for serious cross-border threats to health, crisis response and analysis structures in the EEAS; and the Crisis Coordination Arrangements in the Council. The arrangements are also coherent with the establishment of a European Area of Justice in the Union.

The aim of the proposal is to comply with paragraph 3 of Article 222 which requires that the Commission and the High Representative submit to the Council a proposal on the Union's arrangements for implementing the Solidarity Clause. The proposal defines the geographic scope, the activation mechanism, and the response arrangements at Union level.

EUR-Lex: JOIN(2012)039: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=JOIN:2012:039:FIN

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