ABSTRACT
The EU can be considered the biggest and most compelling project of standardization in the world. Since the birth of the European Economic Community in the late 1950s, standardization has been achieved in most areas of public concern, such as the protection of the environment and of human health, agriculture, and food safety. With the growth of its tasks and the increasing complexity of the EU system, the establishment of standards has become a necessity, to ensure the EU member states follow the same path and adhere to the same legal frameworks, rules, and norms. However, has this process always been successful and achieved positive results? This chapter seeks to disentangle the pros and the cons of having a supranational organization that sets requirements and rules within a challenging EU policy, such as disaster risk management, and highlights which peculiar initiatives the EU takes that enhance common framings, goals, and aims within disaster risk management.
