Solidarity among Member States in the event of a natural or man-made disaster (art. 222 TFEU)

The present work will focus on the principle of solidarity in the event of natural or man-made disaster in accordance with Article 222 TFEU. Furthermore, it considers the emergence of a sort of “solidarity system” based on the connection with other EU provisions to face a wide range of disasters. In the framework of the European integration process, the introduction of the solidarity clause has led to a renewed debate on a basic principle that has informed the entire EU construction. In such a perspective, the present work will confirm that this clause should be read in conjunction with other rules of EU primary and secondary law to which necessarily, although implicitly, it refers. More attention will be paid, in particular, to EU civil protection which pursues an interlinked objective. All of this with the aim to highlight that, although the solidarity clause has been rightly considered 'an integral part of a permanent EU crisis response, crisis management and crisis coordination system', a lot of consistency and efficiency are necessary to find a good balance in the combination of solidarity and security.