The EMBER project successfully implemented

The successful end of the implementation of the “Ever-moving border emergency response – EMBER” project was marked at the Vukovar-Srijem County in Vinkovci 21 on December 2017. The attendees were greeted by the members of partner institutions from the  Republic of Serbia, Zorica Petrović, Assistant Secretary, Secretariat of the Provincial Government of AP Vojvodina, and Vidosava Enderić, Director of the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, whilst, on behalf of the host institution, by Božo Galić, Prefect of Vukovar-Srijem County.

The EMBER project resulted in response to the floods that hit our region in May 2014. Given that emergencies are of high intensity and happen quickly, randomly, without choosing the time, location and degree of vulnerability of the affected area, these extreme events are very difficult to regulate, and as a result, there are catastrophic losses. With its activities, the EMBER project has contributed greatly to the improvement of regional cooperation in the border region between Serbia and Croatia, in terms of potential flooding in the Sava River Basin.

Among the significant project activities were the preparation of joint planning documents for emergency response, and especially field exercises in which the members of the civil protection units from Serbia and Croatia were trained together. The project involved capacity building of institutions being important factors of the protection and rescue system in cases of floods, such as the PWMC “Vode Vojvodine”, “Hrvatske vode”, Red Cross of Vojvodina, Croatian Red Cross, PE “Vojvodinašume”, Mountain Rescue Service of Serbia. Significant equipment has been procured which will help respond time in the event of potential new emergency situations, such as sand-loading machines, water pumps, mobile triage trailers, as well as equipment for the Provincial Emergency Headquarters.

The EMBER project, worth over million euros, has been EU co-funded under the IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme Croatia-Serbia. The project partners from Vojvodina are the Provincial Government Secretariat, European Affairs Fund of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Provincial Secretariat for Economy and Tourism. The partners from the Republic of Croatia are Vukovar-Srijem County, Regional Development Agency HRAST Ltd, and National Protection and Rescue Directorate.

The EMBER project is a project in a row of projects that are jointly implemented in cooperation between institutions from AP Vojvodina and Vukovar-Srijem County with the support of the European Union. This fact indicates good cooperation and the efforts of both countries to make better use of the available EU funds to solve the daily problems that citizens face in the border area.