Hazards and threats know no borders. In an emergency, it should therefore be possible to quickly and effectively share information even across borders. In order to ensure this, we are developing procedures in the ISF Project for receiving warnings via the Modular Warning System (MoWaS) from neighbouring countries of the European Union or transmitting them to neighbouring countries to be processed there.

Kickoff with Denmark and Belgium

Together with our neighbours Denmark and Belgium, we are now shaping the successful start of this subproject. In 2023, for example, we – in collaboration with the respective authorities responsible for alerting the population and the respective technical service providers – developed the technical interfaces required for the exchange of data between the warning systems of the participating countries.

We are currently working on integrating the warning messages into the Modular Warning System via the technical interfaces. This is expected to be practically implemented by the summer of 2024. From then on, information on relevant cross-border warning events from Denmark and Belgium can be transmitted in a technically secure manner to the control centres in the bordering German Länder Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein and processed there.

We are also in contact with other neighbouring countries of the European Union in order to link them with MoWaS and thus ensure the cross-border exchange of warning information in the medium to long term and to increase warning effectiveness.