International cooperation The volunteer organisation replied that they do not participate in international cooperation in the field of civil protection in the Baltic Sea Region. Similarly, neither authority participates in international cooperation in civil protection in the Baltic Sea Region. International cooperation can be good support for promoting volunteering and for sharing the best practices about volunteering activities as well as learning from others and incorporating their best practices into our system. Authority.
Biggest challenges involving volunteers The respondents were given the possibility to express their opinion about the biggest challenge to increasing volunteer involvement in the field of civil protection in Lithuania. The main concerns of the volunteer organisation involved motivation, the lack of exercises, and there being no umbrella organisation for all NGOs. One authority replied that enough time needs to be devoted to working with volunteers.
Summary of the results To sum up the results for Lithuania, the main problem is that there was a huge lack of interest in participating in the questionnaire and interviews, especially by those volunteer organisations and authorities that are directly involved in civil protection tasks. So, the overall picture for Lithuania in this research is really lacking and inadequate.
2.2.8 Germany Introduction In all, twenty-one people responded to the questionnaire: ten represented volunteer organisations and eleven the authorities. Four interviews were conducted, all of which with people representing different German firefighting and civil service authorities. The excerpts from these interviews are not direct quotations. Rather, they represent the interviewers’ summaries 124
