To mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Council of Europe’s “EUR-OPA Major Hazards” Agreement, the annual meeting of directors from the Euro-Mediterranean centres participating in the Open Partial Agreement on the prevention of, protection against, and organization of relief in major natural and technological disasters was held in Ravello—at the European University Centre for Cultural Heritage—on Thursday, February 2, and Friday, February 3, 2012. Through the Executive Secretary of “EUR-OPA Major Hazards,” Eladio Fernandez-Galiano, the Council of Europe sought to acknowledge the Centre’s driving role in the Agreement’s creation. Indeed, it was the Ravello Centre that organized three meetings of Mediterranean European Civil Protection Ministers starting in 1985; these meetings paved the way for the 1987 signing of the Open Partial Agreement on the prevention of, protection against, and organization of relief in major natural and technological disasters—an agreement that today counts 26 countries among its members.

Delegations and experts from Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, the Russian Federation, France, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, the Republic of San Marino, Turkey, and Ukraine, as well as representatives of the Council of Europe, took part in the meeting.