Civil Protection is the activity carried out by the State, Autonomous Regions, and Local Government, citizens and all the public and private entities with the aim of preventing serious accident or disaster collective risk, mitigating its effects, protecting, and offering relief to people and goods in danger when such situations take place. The activity of Civil Protection is regulated by Law 27/2006 of 3 July  (Civil Protection Basic Law, with the amendments of Organic Law 1/2011 of 30 November and Law 80/2015 of 3 August, which republished it), which sets emergency solutions planning as one of its fields of action. 

The drafting of Civil Protection Emergency Plans is regulated by the Directive on the Criteria and Technical Standards to Draft and Implement Civil Protection Emergency Plans, as set in the  National Commission for Civil Protection Resolution 30/2015 of 7 May. This Directive standardizes the structure and contents of emergency plans, streamlining the process to draft, revise, and approve them, and introduces mechanisms for the periodical assessment of their efficacy. 

The emergency planning activity must also take into account what is contained in Decree-Law 90-A/2022 of 30 December on the Integrated Protection and Relief Operations System and, when applicable, Law 65/2007 of 12 November (amended by Decree-Law 114/2011 of 30 November and by Decree-Law 44/2019 of 10 April, which republished it), which sets Civil Protection’s institutional and operational framework at a municipal level, or relevant sector legislation.

EMERGENCY PLANS – WHAT ARE THEY? 

The Civil Protection Emergency Plans are formal documents where the Civil Protection authorities, at their various levels, set the guidelines on the way in which the various bodies, services and structures to be deployed to Civil Protection operations indispensable to response and resuming normality must act in order to minimize the effects of a serious accident or disaster on lives, the economy, heritage, and the environment. 

They are therefore documents drafted with the aim of organizing, guiding, easing, streamlining, and standardizing the actions needed for response. As such, they must be simple, flexible, dynamic, precise, and suited to the local features. They must also anticipate the scenarios that could lead to a serious accident or disaster, defining the organizational structure and the procedures for preparedness and enhancing response capacity to the emergency.

WHAT TYPES OF PLANS ARE THERE? 

The Civil Protection Emergency Plans are normally ranked according to two criteria:

Purpose: If the plans are drafted to face up to most emergency situations in any territorial or administrative scope, they are referred to as General. If they are drafted to be applied in the event of specific serious accidents or disasters, the nature of which requires a suitable technical and/or scientific methodology whose occurrence in time and space is predictable with a high probability level, or, even if with low probability, it could lead to unacceptable consequences, they are referred to as Special.

Scope: The Civil Protection Emergency Plans, according to the territorial scope of the situation, may be National, Regional, District, or Municipal. However, the Special Plans may also encompass homogenous risk areas whose scale is supra-municipal (involving more than one municipality within the same district) or supra-district (involving more than one district). 

WHAT DO THEY SET?

The Civil Protection Emergency Plans are drafted according to Resolution 30/2015 of 7 May (Directive by the National  Civil Protection Commission on the Criteria and Technical Standards for Drafting Civil Protection Emergency Plans) and they set, to wit: 

1. a) The classification of risks according to type
   b) The preventive measures to be adopted
   c) The identification of the means and resources to be mobilized in the event of a serious accident or disaster
   d) The criteria for mobilization and coordination mechanisms of the public or private means and resources to be used
   e) The operational structure to ensure unity in command and the ongoing monitoring of the situation
   f) The definition of responsibilities of the public or private bodies, services and structures with competencies in the field of civil protection.

All the emergency plans are periodically updated and must have frequent exercises to test their operationality, at least every two years, unless stated otherwise in specific sector legislation.

HOW ARE THEY DRAFTED?

For assistance in drafting Civil Protection Emergency Plans, we recommend you view the following specifications published by the National Authority for Civil Protection: 

• Support Manual for Drafting and Implementing Civil Protection Emergency Plans
• Support Manual for Drafting External Emergency Plans ("Seveso II" Directive)

WHEN ARE THEY REVISED?

The Civil Protection Emergency Plans must be revised at least five years after entering into force, except for special plans, unless stated otherwise in the specific legislation on the type of risk considered. 

The competent authorities in approving the civil protection emergency plans may set a maximum deadline for revision that is less than the one stated above if they feel the introduction of corrective measures is justified to increase the plans’ functionality.