Baltic and other European nations develop regional plans for cross-border evacuations amid various threats.
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Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland signed a memorandum to strengthen regional cooperation on cross-border evacuation planning, mass evacuation plans, and timely information exchange for large-scale evacuations. These countries committed to sharing data on evacuation capacities, potential corridors, and border crossings during wartime, as well as gathering necessary resources to aid citizens in danger from armed conflict. Lithuania emphasized the need for clear protocols and rapid information exchange for effective preventative, preparatory, and mitigating measures, alongside coordinated public communication. Despite regional planning efforts, only a few municipalities in Lithuania have officially presented updated evacuation plans.
In Austria, crisis management plans exist at local levels, but there is uncertainty about public awareness of these plans; general guidance on personal preparation is available. Austrian pragmatism suggests that natural disasters like floods are the most likely threats, though contingency plans for nuclear use have been developed. In the Basque Country, emergency plans are distributed between central government, autonomous communities, and municipalities, with regional plans (PLATER) activated for various crises, although public awareness varies.
Spain has protocols in place across all public and private institutions due to terrorism concerns, and following Russian missile tests, a national population protection plan was developed at the end of 2024 to address “war risk,” which is now explicitly defined in new crisis management strategies. In Czechia, evacuation is managed by local mayors or regional fire services; while some cities have specific plans, public knowledge is unclear, and the general emergency guide hasn’t been updated since 2003, lacking practical war scenarios. The Czech defense strategy emphasizes preparation for a long defensive war against technologically advanced adversaries, noting that Russia poses the greatest threat, and the country has approximately 6,000 fallout shelters.
In Poland, citizen safety relies heavily on local governments, which are mandated by new legislation to handle critical decisions during threats, including public notification, organizing evacuations, designating routes, and securing cultural assets. However, practical implementation faces challenges, as the plan assumes most people can self-evacuate, while there is no provision for forced evacuation, a lesson learned from past events like floods in 1997 and 2024. Poland has nearly 225,000 MDS shelters capable of housing over 49 million people, though public awareness of their locations is low.
