European Commission establishes PreparEU disaster preparedness advisory group

What happened

The European Commission announced the establishment of the PreparEU Advisory Group in Brussels on 30 October 2026. Its remit is to offer strategic input on responding to disaster risks that the Commission says are accelerating across Europe.

The group will advise Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Hadja Lahbib, the Commissioner whose portfolio includes equality, preparedness and crisis management. The Commission’s announcement specifically identifies extreme weather events and wildfires among the risks within the group’s stated focus.

The immediate point for readers is that the Commission has formally created an advisory mechanism that will feed into its senior political leadership on disaster preparedness. The release describes the group as advisory: it does not present it as an operational emergency-response body or set out new preparedness measures.

Why it matters

Preparedness is being addressed at the level of the Commission President and the Commissioner responsible for crisis management. The group’s mandate places strategic consideration of accelerating disaster risks, including weather extremes and wildfires, within that leadership-facing process.

For sustainability, resilience and risk professionals, the announcement is relevant because it identifies the hazards the Commission has chosen to highlight in establishing the group. Extreme weather and wildfires are named directly, rather than inferred from a broader description of disaster risk.

The published text is limited in scope. It confirms the group’s creation, its advisory function and the Commission leaders it will support, but does not describe recommendations, decisions or outcomes. It also does not set out how the group’s advice will be used.

What to watch next

The material supplied with the announcement does not provide a schedule for the group’s work, a date for initial advice or details of forthcoming policy action. It also does not list the group’s members in the text available here.

Readers should distinguish between the establishment of the advisory group and any future measures that may follow from its work. At this stage, the confirmed development is the creation of PreparEU and its strategic advisory remit for von der Leyen and Lahbib.