Romania Activates EU Civil Protection Mechanism, Four EU Members Offer Aid

"The request for assistance in form of inflatable dams, pumps, power generators, water purification systems, lighting kits and other material was immediately communicated to all Participating States through the Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC)", says the EC press release.

Romania has already accepted Belgium's offer, comprising eleven pumps, five power generators, one water purification unit and its conditioning unit, all manned by six people. The equipment, manned by six people, is already en route to Romania and will arrive Monday night. The Belgian convoy will also transport the equipment sent by Austria, which consists of ten dirty water pumps and three power generators.

Romania is still analyzing the offers made by France, consisting of five pumps, eight power generators and one water purification unit, manned by a team of 30, and by Estonia. According to the EC press release, Estonia announced that "the Commission funded BaltFloodCombat High Capacity Pumping module, which is composed by a joint Baltic team with Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian participants, is ready to be moved to Romania if required."

Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response highlighted the solidarity displayed by Europe. She added that the recent disasters in Central and Eastern Europe will serve as examples in an effort "to improve and reinforce our disaster response capacity in the future."

The European Civil Protection Mechanism, created in 2001, facilitates cooperation in disaster response, with the participation of the 27 EU member states, as well as Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. When activated, the Mechanism ensures the coordination of assistance interventions inside and outside the European Union, through the Monitoring and Information Centre. It has been deployed in the 2009 forest fires in Southern Europe, as well as in the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.

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