LANGUAGE AND INTEGRATION COMPETENCE OF THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT OF THE STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE AS A PRECONDITION FOR IMPLEMENTING EUROPEAN CIVIL PROTECTION STANDARDS

Abstract

The article examines the role of the language and integration competence of the senior management of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in implementing European civil protection standards, an issue closely tied to Ukraine's participation in the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). The author argues that command of a foreign language at the B2+ level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) constitutes a functional precondition for the full participation of service managers in UCPM training programmes, expert exchange activities and international emergency response operations. The study defines the content of the integration competence of an SES manager, which combines language training, knowledge of UCPM procedures and tools, experience of inter-agency and international cooperation, and the capacity to represent the position of the service within the European Civil Protection Pool. A comparative analysis of the experience of Central and Eastern European states makes it possible to identify the patterns underlying the successful integration of language training into the human-resource systems of civil protection services. A significant gap is established between the regulatory requirements of the Association Agreement and the actual level of language competence among SES managers. The article proposes conceptual directions for developing a system of language and integration training for the service's senior management in cooperation with the UCPM Knowledge Network.