The policy of the Copernicus program is that products and services offered under this program are per definition free and open to everyone, with only a few exceptions made for specific reasons. With regards to flood management, the Member States hold the exclusive right to issue flood warnings. To respect that mandate, all real-time EFAS forecasts and products are restricted and only accessible to “EFAS partners”.
Any national, regional or local authority that is legally responsible for providing flood forecasting services, or that has a national role in flood risk management within its country and the European Commission Services, can become an EFAS partner.
There are three types of EFAS partnerships: full partners, third party partners and research project partners. To become an EFAS partner and to find out which type of partnership is applicable, the eligible authority/organisation can contact the “CEMS Hydrological Forecast Centre - Analytics and Dissemination” to be guided through the process.
Regions covered by an EFAS partner agreement