Handover of the CBSS Presidency Civil Protection Bell
The annual Directors General Meeting took place for the 13th time in Tallinn on 3 June 2015 and was opened by Mister Hanno Pevkur, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Estonia. The traditon of this gathering of international Directors General of Civil Protection institutions started in 2002 – also in Tallinn.
This year, the focus lay on fire safety and prevention work. All representatives – from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Russia – reported from their work in the field of fire safety and civil protection in general, having the unique opportunity for planning future collaboration on the spot. The Estonian Rescue Board is planning a larger, multinational project on fire safety and invited the international colleagues to provide their expertise and knowledge – receiving great support from all participants.
The ongoing projects, such as From Gaps to Caps and BaltPrevResilience were presented to the audience and partners, to share the already achieved results and progress. Helena Lindberg, Director General of MSB, promoted the Baltic Leadership Programme, planned to take place again in Warsaw at the end of November 2015 and encouraged her colleagues to send members of their team to the course.
The Estonian Rescue Board hosted an eclectic event, taking the delegation to a beautiful dinner at Schloss Fall outside of Tallinn – including an opera singer performance – and invited Lauri Tabur, Director of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, to give an eye-opening keynote speech about the changing role of civil protection institutions in the light of new technology and changing trends in the 21 century.
The handover of the CBSS presidency from Estonia to Poland was highlighted by a presentation of the past year of the Estonian presidency by Ambassador-at-large Raul Mälk and an overview of planned activities during the upcoming Polish presidency by Col. Tomasz Kolodziejczyk. The symbolic manifestation of this change in presidencies was the handover of the Civil Protection Bell from Estonia to Poland, as a grande finale of the meeting.
The agenda can be downloaded here.