Brussels, 01/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - EU effort to help the United States combat the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is continuing (EUROPE 10158 and 10148). The European Commission announced, on Thursday 1 July, that the federal on-site coordinator in the US had agreed, during the night of Wednesday to Thursday, to accept a high capacity, high speed off-shore skimmer (Framo Transrec 150) offered by the European Union for separating oil from water.
Since the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April this year, many countries taking part in the European civil protection mechanism have provided aid in answer to calls for assistance from the United States (Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Romania, Portugal, Belgium, Greece, France and Norway). (A.N./transl.jl)