Prepared for emergencies: Experts are pushing for better coordination in times of crisis

According to an inventory by the AFCEA Bonn specialist association, the central weak point in a large-scale crisis in Germany is the coordination between authorities, states, the Bundeswehr and operators of critical infrastructure. According to the analysis, there is neither a lack of legal requirements nor of individual technical skills, but rather of binding procedures to bring together information and quickly clarify responsibilities in an emergency.

The position paper is the result of interviews with 55 experts from authorities, aid organizations, industry as well as clinics and other facilities that are part of the critical infrastructure. The authors expressly make no claim to representativeness.

Little trust in the population

Study leader Bernhard Steimel criticizes: “People don’t have much confidence in the population.” The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) has “great expertise and a lot of information,” but this is not sufficiently disseminated. In Sweden, things are much further ahead; information about what to do in the crisis is distributed to all households.

Food supplies planned twice

As an example, they describe the case of a grocer whose inventory is taken into account in both military operational planning and civilian inventory planning. According to a logistics expert, the civilian supply planning lacked information that the same stocks were also planned for the military. According to the authors, the case illustrates the risk of planning scarce resources in parallel.

There is also a lack of a central office that is authorized to manage patients nationwide. Such control could become necessary if, in the event of a NATO alliance, a number of wounded people had to be treated at short notice for which the Bundeswehr's own capacities were not sufficient. Hazard prevention and healthcare are fundamentally the responsibility of the federal states.

The AFCEA Bonn association sees itself as an exchange platform for dialogue between the Bundeswehr, security authorities, administration, science and industry.

Which employees are active at THW?

Some employers who were surveyed for the association's inventory see it as problematic that they are not allowed to routinely ask which of their employees are volunteering for the Technical Relief Organization (THW) or the fire department. In crisis situations, companies need to know which employees could be tied down in the event of an emergency, they argue. The THW Act protects employees from suffering disadvantages in their employment relationship because of their obligation to the THW service or because of the service.

Blocked transitions

The association's chairman, Major General Armin Fleischmann, cites blocked transitions in data exchange between open and closed networks as an obstacle. Even if a drone is spotted over a company's factory premises, one would be too slow. “By the time the police arrive, the aircraft has disappeared.” Such cases were reportedly also a topic at a meeting of interior ministers at the Federal Ministry of the Interior on Monday regarding drone defense strategy.