Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Swedish: Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap, MSB) is a Swedish administrative authority, organised under the Ministry of Justice. The agency is responsible for issues concerning civil protection, public safety, emergency management and civil defence. Responsibility refers to measures taken before, during and after an emergency or crisis. MSB work in close cooperation with the municipalities, the county councils, other authorities, organisations and the private sector to achieve increased safety and security at all levels of society. This is done through education, support, training exercises, regulation and supervision.[1]

Front page of the 2018 edition of If crisis or war comes published by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency
Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap
Logotype of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency
Agency overview
Formed1 January, 2009
Preceding agencies
HeadquartersKarlstad
Employees1,000
Annual budgetSEK 1.2 billion (2019)
Minister responsible
Agency executive
Parent agencyMinistry of Health and Social Affairs
Websitewww.msb.se

The agency covers the whole spectrum of contingencies; from everyday road traffic accidents and fires, up to chemical emergencies, power cuts and other technical failures. Additionally, more serious emergencies, such as bomb threats and other antagonistic attacks, epidemics, natural disasters and war. In most cases, the responsibility for on-scene action does not lie with the Civil Contingencies Agency but with municipal rescue services, law enforcement agencies or other agencies.[1]

History

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency was established 1 January 2009, when Swedish Rescue Services Agency (Swedish: Räddningsverket), the Swedish Emergency Management Agency (Swedish: Krisberedskapsmyndigheten) and the Swedish National Board of Psychological Defence (Swedish: Styrelsen för psykologiskt försvar) were merged into one body.[2]

During the 2018 Sweden wildfires, Sweden requested help from European Union through the Emergency Response Coordination Centre at the European Commission's Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department. Sweden received help from Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal. The help included firefighters, equipment and water bombing aircraft.[3][4][5][6] Polish state-owned television channel Telewizja Polska later claimed that "Sweden needed help as the country lacks firefighting capabilities, having prioritized spending on immigration and gender theory education.", due to the agency having spent 1.9% of their research budget (21m SEK, roughly €2m) on equality and on gender theory to investigate relations during crisis management. The agency responded that they considered the accusation to be fake news, as the agency has nothing to do with firefighting, as Swedish fire and rescue service brigades are funded by the municipalities and regions.[7][8]

Organisation

The MSB is based in Stockholm, Karlstad, Kristinehamn and Ljung. The MSB also has some colleges in Sandö, Revinge and Rosersberg. The agency has about 850 employees, led by Director-General Dan Eliasson. It's organised into five departments: Risk & Vulnerability Reduction Department, Emergency Management Development Department, Coordination and Operations Department, Evaluation and Monitoring Department and the Administration Department.[9][10]

Directors-General

See also

References
  1. "About". MSB. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  2. "Vision, concept and cornerstone". MSB. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  3. "Så tog bränderna över den svenska sommaren". SVT Nyheter. 30 July 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  4. "French soldiers land in Sweden to battle wildfire inferno". thelocal.se. 23 July 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  5. "Sweden rushes firefighting aircraft to tackle fast-spreading wildfires". Deutsche Welle. 19 July 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  6. "The Swedish town on the frontline of the Arctic wildfires". The Guardian. 30 July 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  7. "MSB satsar 10 miljoner på genusforskning - ska gå till botten med "maktrelationer" vid krishantering". Dagens Juridik (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-07-21.
  8. Nyheter, SVT (2018-08-08). "Polsk tv sprider falska nyheter om Sverige efter skogsbränderna". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  9. "Management". MSB. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  10. "Departments and Sections". MSB. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  11. "MSB:s generaldirektör Helena Lindberg föreslås bli riksrevisor" (in Swedish). Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. 2017-02-03. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  12. "Camilla Asp utses till överdirektör och vikarierande generaldirektör för Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap" (Press release) (in Swedish). Government of Sweden. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  13. Charlotte Petri Gornitzka to become Director-General of MSB (in Swedish) 2023-03-25
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