Introduction: The EU in Practice Project
We are excited to launch EU in Practice, a new project designed for young people and educators that shines a light on something too often overlooked: the ways the European Union quietly, steadily, and profoundly shapes our everyday lives.
In a time marked by overlapping crises, information overload, and the constant presence of disinformation, it has become harder, and more important, for citizens to understand what actually works in Europe. Many of our shared achievements are invisible precisely because they function so smoothly. They are infrastructures we never see, rights we rarely question, protections we don’t realise we’re receiving. And because of that, we forget they exist.
The EU is far from perfect. No political project ever is. But across decades, layer by layer, it has built systems, tools, rights, and mechanisms that safeguard our health, environment, freedom, mobility, and security. Most of these benefits are so woven into daily life that we take them for granted.
This series is a reminder.
A reminder that the EU is not an abstract bureaucracy but an active, evolving ecosystem that protects, empowers, and connects 450 million people.
A reminder that our shared policies and instruments are not distant ideas, they are lived realities.
A reminder that, even in moments of fracture or frustration, the European project quietly continues delivering things that no single country could achieve alone.
EU in Practice highlights these often-invisible successes. Each article explores a specific mechanism, right, or policy that makes a tangible difference: from disaster response and food safety to data protection, mobility, environmental standards, and more.
And this series is especially for you: teachers, educators, and youth workers.
You have the power to help young people understand the systems shaping their future. To help them see through misinformation. To give them the tools to become informed citizens capable of participating fully in European democracy. The resources we publish can be used in classrooms, workshops, youth dialogues, or civic programmes. Feel free to download, adapt, embed, remix, they are made for learning.
Because knowledge is power.
And in this case, knowing the EU — understanding how it works, what it protects, what it enables — is essential to political and civic literacy at every level in Europe.
Today’s feature, a deep dive into rescEU, the EU’s shared safety net, begins that journey.
I. A New Kind of Emergency
The first thing students often imagine when they hear the word disaster is a dramatic moment: a wall of flames, a helicopter hovering, rescuers rushing in. But the truth of modern disasters in Europe is quieter and stranger than the images allow.
A heatwave rolls across the continent and, for the first time in generations, forests in northern Sweden ignite.
A river in Germany swells from rainfall six times heavier than expected, turning villages into churning debris fields in a single night.
Hospitals in Italy run out of ICU beds as a virus spreads faster than any medical manual predicted.
The European Environment Agency now warns that climate-related natural hazards have quadrupled since the 1980s, and the Joint Research Centre estimates that over half of EU territory is at high or very high wildfire risk each summer. In 2021 alone, wildfires burned more land in Europe than in the previous decade combined, while extreme weather caused damage exceeding €50 billion.
This is the world today’s students are inheriting. A world in which disasters are not rare interruptions but a new rhythm, a new normal.
And this is the world that forced Europe to build something unusual — a safety net so ambitious it borders on unprecedented: rescEU.
II. The Years Europe Realised It Was Not Prepared
rescEU did not arise from speeches or strategies. It was born from a series of painful lessons. Moments when countries realised that feeling prepared is not the same as being prepared.
The Wildfire Years
The summer of 2017 was a tipping point.
Portugal burned so intensely that firefighters spoke of flames “behaving like hurricanes.” The 2018 Mati wildfire in Greece moved so fast that people died within minutes of smoke entering their homes. Sweden, whose forests had historically been too wet to burn at scale, suddenly needed help from Italy, France, and Poland.
It was the first time the north and the south of Europe were battling the same type of disaster at the same time, a hint that the climate was redrawing the map of vulnerability.
The Pandemic That Revealed Invisible Weaknesses
Then came 2020.
COVID-19 was not a fire or a flood. It didn’t knock down buildings or uproot trees. Its damage was quieter: supply chains snapping, ICUs overflowing, borders locking down. Suddenly, the most advanced public health systems in the world were begging for masks, ventilators, basic medicines.
Europe learned an uncomfortable truth: in the era of globalised risk, disaster is not only destruction, it is capacity exhaustion.
And so the EU realised: voluntary cooperation was not enough. A system of shared risk required shared capacity. Not just goodwill, but infrastructure.
rescEU was created to become that infrastructure: a European layer of resilience that sits above national systems, stepping in when the unthinkable becomes real.
III. What rescEU Really Is: A Story, Not a Stockpile
When teachers look up rescEU, they often find lists: planes, medical units, shelters, emergency stocks. But rescEU is not a warehouse; it is a story, one that reveals how societies adapt under pressure.
It is the story of a continent that understood that disasters no longer happen “somewhere else.”
It is the story of countries that accepted their vulnerabilities were interlinked.
It is the story of solidarity turned into infrastructure, not just aspiration.
To teach rescEU meaningfully, educators must help students see the invisible architecture beneath the assets — the deeper logic of shared resilience.
IV. The European Safety Net: How rescEU Works in Practice
1. The Layer That Should Never Be Needed, But Often Is
National emergency services are always the first response. When those are overwhelmed, countries request help from other Member States. But there are moments — increasingly common ones — when even combined national resources are not enough.
That is when rescEU activates.
Unlike most EU mechanisms, rescEU is directly co-financed and strategically positioned by the European Union itself.
Some of its aircraft, for example, are purchased with up to 90% EU funding, and stationed in countries chosen not by politics but by risk modelling: areas where intervention speed maximises survival.
This gives rescEU a unique feature:
It is not a symbolic promise of solidarity.
It is material solidarity, pre-positioned and designed for rapid deployment.
2. Prepositioning: The Geography of Preparedness
rescEU is hosted across multiple Member States, but not randomly. Locations are chosen by examining:
climate projections
historical data
seasonal risk curves
logistics corridors
airlifting windows
cross-border access routes
This allows teachers to integrate rescEU into geography lessons:
Why is a medical stockpile held in Belgium instead of Slovenia?
Why are firefighting planes stationed in Croatia during August but in Spain in June?
These questions deepen students’ spatial reasoning and link climate science to public policy.
3. The Most Surprising Part: rescEU Changes Every Year
rescEU is not static. It is alive.
Each year, the European Commission adjusts capacities based on:
new climate models
emerging technologies
geopolitical tensions
lessons from recent disasters
predictions from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service
Teaching this helps students understand systems evolution: preparedness is not a state, it is a process.
V. The Hidden Capacities of rescEU
1. The Planes That Don’t Belong to Any One Nation
Imagine a firefighter in Greece watching the sky as flames race toward a hillside village. Above the smoke, a Canadair CL-415 aircraft appears, but it isn’t Greek. It might be French or Italian, or even stationed hundreds of kilometres away just hours earlier.
rescEU’s aerial fleet is Europe’s first experiment in shared sovereignty. These planes belong partly to the EU, partly to Member States, but fully to the idea that collective risk requires collective tools.
For students, this can be an entry point to discuss:
What does “ownership” mean in a crisis?
Can sovereignty be shared without being lost?
Which other systems could benefit from shared capacity?
2. The Invisible Hospitals That Travel
rescEU’s medical capabilities include mobile hospitals that can be deployed rapidly, complete with surgical units, ICU beds, and decontamination areas.
These hospitals have treated earthquake survivors in Croatia, supported overwhelmed regions during COVID-19, and provided life-saving space during humanitarian crises.
They are a reminder that infrastructure can be mobile, and that society’s safety depends not only on fixed institutions but on flexible, modular systems.
3. The Stockpiles That Could Save Your Community Tomorrow
rescEU’s medical stockpiles contain millions of items: masks, oxygen devices, pharmaceuticals, deployable power units, protective suits.
They sit quietly in unknown warehouses, and yet they form one of Europe’s strongest defenses.
Teachers can turn this into a discussion of:
supply chain vulnerabilities
the ethics of distribution
the psychology of preparedness
how unknown or unseen systems sustain society
4. The Teams Nobody Talks About: CBRN Responders
rescEU maintains special responders trained for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents. This capability is rarely mentioned in classrooms, but students often find it fascinating.
This opens space for science-embedded civic learning:
How does radiation spread?
What is chlorine gas?
Why are pandemics a biological hazard?
What risks does Europe actually face?
By grounding abstract science in real-world systems, teachers can bridge disciplinary divides.
5. The Cyber Dimension: Europe’s Next Frontier
Though still developing, rescEU’s cyber-emergency concept is essential for understanding modern risk. Hospitals, water systems, transportation networks, and emergency communications can all be disrupted digitally.
A ransomware attack on a hospital can kill patients as effectively as a fire.
A hack on a power grid can destabilise entire regions.
Students must understand that disaster is no longer purely physical.
VI. The Bigger Idea: What rescEU Teaches Us About Democracy, Identity, and Power
rescEU is more than equipment. It is a political philosophy in physical form.
1. Solidarity as Infrastructure
Solidarity is often taught as a moral idea. rescEU teaches it as a logistical one.
Students can explore questions like:
Can solidarity be engineered?
What is the difference between kindness and preparedness?
How do shared resources reshape political identity?
2. The New Meaning of “Europeanism”
rescEU subtly redefines what it means to be European.
In a wildfire, your house may be saved by a pilot trained in another country, flying a plane financed by a supranational institution.
This is not nationalism. It is not decentralised aid.
It is a shared identity expressed through shared capacity.
For young people, especially those unsure what “the EU” tangibly does, rescEU offers a powerful example of Europe as a protector, not just a policymaker.
3. The Ethics of Helping: Who Gets Support First?
Educators can introduce ethical dilemmas:
If two countries request the same scarce capacity, who receives it?
Should countries that contribute more financially have priority?
Should countries that face recurrent disasters host more assets?
rescEU is a springboard for discussions on fairness, justice, and moral responsibility.
VII. Guidance for Educators: Turning rescEU Into Deep Learning
Here are ways to transform rescEU from a policy topic into a multidisciplinary exploration.
1. Teach rescEU Through Storytelling, Not Data
Instead of beginning with definitions, start with a narrative:
“On a hot July afternoon, a family in Evia looked up and saw helicopters they had never seen before…”
Stories create emotional anchors. Data then becomes meaningful.
2. Use Maps: Students Love Geospatial Thinking
Plot rescEU locations and overlay them with:
wildfire risk maps
flood zones
population density
transport corridors
This reinforces climate literacy and helps students understand why capacities are where they are.
3. Incorporate Copernicus and EEA Data
Bring in real evidence:
Wildfire Risk (JRC): 56% of EU land is exposed to high fire danger at least once per year.
Heatwave Mortality (EEA): 61,000 heat-related deaths in Europe in summer 2022.
Flood Losses (EEA): Expected to increase fivefold by 2050.
This strengthens critical thinking and helps students evaluate real-world policy.
4. Encourage Systems Thinking
Use rescEU to teach that disasters are not isolated events. Ask:
What happens after the fire is extinguished?
How does an earthquake affect tourism, agriculture, or energy distribution?
How does a health crisis strain mental health, education, and labour markets?
Systems thinking turns students into citizens capable of understanding complexity.
5. Introduce Scenario-Based Learning
Give students a fictional crisis:
“A massive heatwave causes wildfires in Spain, Portugal, and Italy simultaneously…”
Ask them:
Over which regions should firefighting aircraft be prepositioned?
How do you prevent shortages?
What if a cyberattack disrupts GPS signals during the crisis?
This builds decision-making skills that go beyond memorising facts.
VIII. The Future of rescEU: Questions Students Will One Day Answer
rescEU is expanding, but its trajectory raises deeper questions:
Should rescEU evolve into a full European Emergency Service?
Imagine a permanent European firefighting corps.
Or a dedicated European medical rapid-response team.
Or a cyber defense brigade that protects hospitals in all Member States.
Would this strengthen European unity or challenge national sovereignty?
Students should debate this.
What new disasters should rescEU anticipate?
Cascading heatwaves
Mega-droughts
AI-driven cyberattacks
Large-scale migration due to climate instability
Energy grid failures during extreme cold
The future will test whether rescEU can evolve at the pace of emerging threats.
What will the next generation contribute?
Some students will become policymakers.
Some will design emergency technology.
Some will work in civil protection.
Some will become journalists shaping public understanding.
rescEU is not just about today’s emergencies, it is about cultivating tomorrow’s resilience leaders.
IX. Conclusion: The Infrastructure of Hope
In the shadow of crisis, it is easy for students to feel overwhelmed by the scale of global risk. Floods, fires, pandemics — these can create a sense of helplessness.
rescEU offers a counter-narrative.
It shows that societies can respond not only with fear, but with coordination, intelligence, solidarity, and foresight.
It shows that vulnerability does not erase agency.
It shows that cooperation can be engineered — and scaled.
It shows that Europe is capable of building systems that protect, repair, and sustain.
Most importantly, rescEU teaches that resilience is not the absence of disaster —
It is the presence of collective will.
And that is perhaps the most important lesson students can learn.
To continue the journey:
🎥 1. Watch the Video Guide
Our 7 minute teacher-friendly video on the EU Civil Protection Mechanism brings the core ideas to life through story, visuals, and real-world examples.
It’s the perfect introduction before diving into deeper discussions.
📚 2. Download the Classroom Activity Packet
If you’re an educator, youth worker, or facilitator, we’ve created a rich set of activities - mapping, design challenges, ethical debates, scenario simulations, storytelling tasks - all inspired by the rescEU narrative.
Use them in class, in workshops, or as part of civic education programmes.
🌍 3. Use These Materials Together as an EU Learning Ecosystem
The video introduces the concept.
The article provides depth and narrative context.
The activities transform understanding into learning you can feel and do.
Together, they help young people not only learn about the EU, but experience how it works through systems, stories, and real-world problem-solving.
🤝 For Educators: Share, Adapt, Teach
Everything in this project is designed to be flexible. You can:
Use the materials as a full lesson plan
Pair them with your own content
Integrate them into civic education, geography, politics, or science classes
Facilitate youth dialogues or workshops
Encourage project-based learning and debate.
