EMRIC - Euregio Meuse-Rhine Incident Response and Crisis Management

EMRIC stands for Euregio Meuse-Rhine Incident Response and Crisis Management. EMRIC is a unique partnership of government departments and services which are responsible for firefighting, technical assistance, emergency care, infectious disease control, disaster relief and crisis management in their region. In a border-rich region such as the Meuse-Rhine Euregion, foreign emergency services can often arrive faster than their own services. When every second counts, quick help is vital.

This is why CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION IS A NECESSITY.

EMRIC ensures that cross-border cooperation is made possible, because it is by no means self-evident. The methods, systems and laws are so different in the three countries that a lot has to be arranged to be able to cross the border with an ambulance or fire truck. Working, recreating and studying across the border has been a matter of course in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion for quite a while now. However, for a long time that was not the case when it came to helping each other in emergency situations.

Fortunately, a lot has now been arranged, often in collaboration with other governments (national, federal, provincial and municipal). Nowadays, about 900 ambulances cross the border every year to provide the fastest possible assistance and in about 300 cases fire services help each other in case of emergency.

The collaborating services are the Fire Brigade of the city of Aachen, the Ordnungsamt of the Kreis Heinsberg and the Ordnungsamt of the Städteregion Aachen in Germany, the Provinces of Limburg and Liège in Belgium and the Veiligheidsregio and GGD Zuid-Limburg in the Netherlands. These organizations pay for the collaboration and the so-called EMRIC bureau. In addition to these 7 partners, more than 30 services and governments work together with the EMRIC partnership.

All services together implement the treaties on cross-border cooperation that exist between the countries to which the Euregio Meuse-Rhine belongs. Where necessary and possible, the partners in EMRIC also conclude their own agreements for cross-border cooperation.

More information about the EMRIC collaboration can be found on the various pages on this website.