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1. The Commission shall carry out the following preparedness actions:

(a) manage the ERCC;

(b) manage CECIS to enable communication and sharing of information between the ERCC and the Member States’ contact points;

(c) work with Member States:

(i) to develop transnational detection and early warning systems of Union interest in order to mitigate the immediate effects of disasters;

(ii) to better integrate existing transnational detection and early warning systems based on a multi-hazard approach, with a view to minimising the lead time to respond to disasters;

(iii) to maintain and further develop situational awareness and analysis capability;

(iv) to monitor disasters and, where relevant, climate change impacts, and provide advice based on scientific knowledge thereof;

(v) to translate scientific information into operational information;

(vi) to create, maintain and develop European scientific partnerships to cover natural and man-made hazards, which in turn should promote the linkage between national early warning and alert systems and the linkage of such systems with the ERCC and CECIS;

(vii) to support the efforts of Member States and mandated international organisations with scientific knowledge, innovative technologies and expertise when Member States and such organisations further develop their early warning systems, including through the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network referred to in Article 13;

(d) establish and manage the capability to mobilise and dispatch expert teams, responsible for:

(i) assessing the needs that can possibly be addressed under the Union Mechanism in the Member State or third country requesting assistance, (ii) facilitating, where necessary, the coordination of disaster response assistance on site and liaising with the competent authorities of the Member State or third country requesting assistance, and (iii) supporting the Member State or third country requesting assistance with expertise on prevention, preparedness or response actions;

(e) establish and maintain the capability to provide logistical support to the expert teams referred to in point (d);

(f) develop and maintain a network of trained experts of the Member States, who can be available at short notice to assist the ERCC in the monitoring of information and facilitating coordination;

(g) facilitate the coordination of the Member States’ pre-positioning of disaster response capacities inside the Union;

(h) support efforts to improve the interoperability of modules and other response capacities, taking into account best practices at the level of the Member States and at international level;

(i) take, within its sphere of competence, the necessary actions to facilitate host nation support, including developing and updating, together with Member States, guidelines on host nation support, on the basis of operational experience;

(j) support the creation of voluntary peer review assessment programmes for the Member States’ preparedness strategies, based on pre-defined criteria, which will enable recommendations to be formulated to strengthen the level of preparedness of the Union;

(k) in close consultation with the Member States, take additional necessary supporting and complementary preparedness action to achieve the objective specified in point (b) of Article 3(1); and (l) support Member States, upon their request, in respect of disasters happening within their territories by providing the possibility of using European scientific partnerships for targeted scientific analysis. The resulting analyses may be shared via CECIS, with the agreement of the affected Member States.

2. At the request of a Member State, a third country or the United Nations or its agencies, the Commission may deploy an expert team on site to provide advice on preparedness measures.