The EU's Civil Protection Pool was established to strengthen European cooperation in civil preparedness and ensure faster, more effective and better coordinated European response to crises and natural disasters.
The pool brings together resources from EU member states and 10 participating countries outside the EU. These resources, which can be rescue or medical teams, experts, special equipment or means of transport, are ready for dispatch to a crisis area at short notice. When a crisis arises and a request for assistance via the EU's Civil Preparedness Mechanism (UCPM) is received, resources are deployed from this pool.
A Norwegian emergency medical team (EMT) is certified as a capacity under the volunteer pool. The team was first deployed in 2019 when the government of Samoa declared a state of emergency as a result of a measles outbreak in the country. The team was also sent out in 2020 to assist Italy during the first phase of the corona pandemic.