National Civil Protection System

Civil Protection is a permanent activity that encompasses all sectors of society. It is developed by the State, Autonomous Regions, municipalities, public and private bodies, and citizens. Its main goals are to prevent and prepare for collective risks, and to respond and recover in the event of serious accidents or disasters. Although it is not explicitly detailed in the Constitution, it may be considered one of the State’s fundamental tasks.

Civil Protection is carried out throughout the entire national soil. In the autonomous regions, the civil protection policy and action fall under the Regional Governments. Civil protection may also be exercised outside national soil in cooperation with other States or international organizations to which Portugal belongs. 

The National Civil Protection System is made up of a large set of bodies: governing bodies at the national, regional, district and municipal level, civil protection agents, public and private bodies with a special duty to cooperate, technical and scientific research institutions. In a situation of warning, calamity or contingency, all citizens are also called to collaborate. That is why we say: “we are all civil protection”.

The parliament defines the civil protection policy framework and supervises its enforcement. The Government is charged with guiding the civil protection policy, under the Prime Minister’s leadership. The national coordinating body is the National Commission for Civil Protection.

The National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection operates in mainland Portugal with the mission to plan, coordinate and implement the emergency and civil protection policies, articulate and coordinate the civil protection agents’ operations and the bodies that intervene in this area, ensure the planning and coordination of the national requirements for emergency civil planning, and enforce the Portuguese State’s international cooperation policy.

There is a District Commission for Civil Protection in each district and in each municipality, there is a Municipal Commission for Civil Protection. These may also determine the existence of Local Civil Protection Units at the parish level.

 The following are civil protection agents:

• Firefighters
• Security Forces
• Armed Forces
• National Maritime Authority Bodies
• National Civil Aviation Authority
• INEM (Integrated Medical Emergency System) and other healthcare providers
• Forest firefighters
• Portuguese Red Cross (cooperates with the civil protection agents under the terms of its bylaws).

 The following are bodies with a special duty to cooperate:

• Private legal entities who hold firefighter corps
• Security services
• Service charged with providing medical examination and forensics
• Social security services
• Private charities and others with the purpose of providing relief and solidarity
• Private security and assistance services for public and private enterprises, ports, and airports
• Institutions that are indispensable in protection and relief, emergency and assistance operations, namely from the forestry, nature conservation, industry and energy, transports, communications, water resources and the environment, sea and atmosphere sectors
• Civil protection volunteering organizations
• Public or private technical and scientific research institutions and services, with competence in fields of interest to the pursuit of civil protection’s fundamental goals.

  The following are domains in which civil protection operates:

• Surveying, predicting, assessing and preventing collective risks
• The permanent analysis of vulnerabilities in the event of a risk
• Informing and training the population, raising their awareness of self-protection and collaboration with the authorities
• Planning emergency solutions, search and rescue, offering relief and assistance, as well as evacuation, lodging and provisioning for the population
• Taking stock of the available means and resources and those that can be easily mobilized on a local, regional, and national level
• Studying and disclosing the suitable means for protecting buildings, monuments, and other cultural assets, infrastructure, archives, essential services’ facilities, as well as the environment and natural resources
• Predicting and planning action to be taken in the event of areas affected by risks being isolated.

The following are civil protection operational principles:

Priority – Protecting the public interest must be foremost when it comes to civil protection.

Prevention – The risks of serious accident or disaster must be considered in an early manner in order to eliminate their causes or reduce their consequences.

Precaution – Measures to reduce the risk of serious accident or disaster inherent in each activity must be adopted.

Subsidiarity – The civil protection subsystem on a higher level must only intervene if the goals are not met by the civil protection system immediately below, given the scale and severity of the occurrences’ effects.

Cooperation – Civil protection is an attribution of the State, autonomous regions, and local authorities, and a duty of all citizens towards public and private entities.

Coordination – The civil protection municipal policy must be articulated with the district, regional, and national policies.

Command unit – All the agents act on an operational level under one single command, in an articulated way, without prejudice to the respective hierarchical and functional dependence.

Information – The information on civil protection is to be disclosed.