The EMBER project – by cross-border cooperation to a better response to challenges of emergency situations in the Sava River basin

The kick-off conference of the “Ever-Moving Border Emergency Response – EMBER“ was held at the premises of the Provincial Government on 15 November 2016. The project is jointly implemented by institutions from Serbia and Croatia working on the enhancement of regional cooperation and joint approach to flood control in the border regions of the Sava River basin.

The EMBER project is co-funded by the European Union and the project beneficiaries are the Secretariat of the Provincial Government, European Affairs Fund of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the Provincial Secretariat for Economy and Tourism from Serbia, and Vukovar-Srijem County, Regional Development Agency HRAST Ltd. and the National Protection and Rescue Directorate from Croatia. The associated partners in the project are municipalities and companies having faced problems due to heavy floods in May 2014 in the Sava River basin: Sremska Mitrovica and Šid, Public Water Management Company “Vode Vojvodine“, Mountain Rescue Service of Serbia and Croatian municipalities  of Drenovci, Gunja, Vrbanja and the public company “Croatian waters”.

The objective of the EMBER project is to improve the level of preparedness for flood protection in the border region. The project envisages the preparation of joint planning documents for emergency response, procurement of equipment and joint field exercises of civil protection units from Serbia and Croatia. A part of the project will involve improvement of skills and procedures of rescue task forces, as well as harmonization of actions in emergency situations of crisis management bodies in the border region during and after floods. A separate part of the project will be dedicated to awareness raising of local population in the event of flooding.

The total project value is EUR 1,019,480.84, while the approved project budget for partners from the Republic of Serbia amounts to 441,069.23 EUR. The EU contribution is 85% of the total project value and it amounts to 374.908,85 EUR, whereas the co-financing of 15% is provided by project partners from the Republic of Serbia.

George Papagiannis, representative of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia said that the importance of the EMBER project is proven by the fact that it is one of sole eight approved projects out of 55 cross-border projects submitted in total.

The importance of the EMBER project and on the steps to be taken in its implementation in the next 14 months were presented by Tatjana Gašović, Secretary of the Provincial Government, Vidosava Enderić, Director of the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, Milan Žeželj, representative of the Office for European Integration of the Republic of Serbia, Đorđe Ćurčić, Deputy Prefect of Vukovar-Srijem County and Daniela Barišić, Project Manager from Vukovar-Srijem County.