Brussels, 05/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - EU member states are pulling together to help Romania deal with the severe flooding which has already claimed the lives of at least 25 people in the north-east of the country, following massive rainfall over the last week and a half.
On the evening of Friday 2 July Bucharest issued a call for help, activating the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Austria, Belgium, Estonia and France responded within hours, offering materials and assistance teams.
In a press release, European International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva congratulates these countries for their gesture of solidarity and says that she will “use the lessons learnt during recent disasters in Central and Eastern Europe to find ways to improve and reinforce our disaster response capacity in the future”.
Belgium's offer of 11 pumps, five power generators, one water purification unit and its conditioning unit, manned by a six-strong team and Austria's offer of 10 dirty water pumps and three power generators have already been accepted.
France has offered five pumps, eight power generators and one water purification unit, manned by a team of 30 people. Estonia has indicated that the Commission-funded BaltFlood Combat High Capacity Pumping module, a joint Baltic team with Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian participants, is ready to be moved to Romania if required. Offers from national authorities are coordinated by the European Commission through the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) which is on alert 24 hours a day to ensure that the help offered fits with the aid requested. (A.N./transl.rt)