Abstract - This paper is about the EU’s response to the need for updating long-time policies like the development aid policy and the humanitarian aid policy, to the challenge of coping with rising risks and threats like cybercrime and new diseases, and to the task of keeping up with civil and military crisis management capabilities. In particular, the paper analyzes the reform of the tasks and missions of relevant Commission Departments and makes a cross-examination of the main EU official documents about disaster and emergency policies in order to show up the current merging-policy practice as the EU’s strategy to achieve the goal of being able to give short- and long-term aid, i.e. immediate relief and efficient reconstruction, to the countries hit by natural and man-made disasters.
