Brussels, 23/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, will leave on Thursday 24 March for Japan, which has been stricken by an earthquake and tsunami. The European Commission announced the news on Wednesday after a discussion of the College on the European response to this crisis. Georgieva will meet the Japanese authorities and representatives of international humanitarian organisations to discuss the rescue operations underway. Georgieva's departure for Tokyo coincides with the arrival there of the first batch of EU emergency aid items brought in by the airlift established on 18 March by the civil protection mechanism of the EU (EUROPE 10341). This dispatch of vital equipment - blankets, mattresses, sleeping bags, jerry cans, water, etc - is a response to the request for assistance formally made by the Japanese authorities on 15 March.
70 tonnes of European aid in kind. The day before she left, the commissioner said: “Today, a European plane carrying 70 tonnes of relief items offered by the member states through our EU civil protection mechanism is heading to Japan. Tomorrow I will go to Tokyo to personally take part in the hand over on this European aid shipment to the Japanese authorities. At a time when Japan is coping with a very tough humanitarian crisis, I want to personally convey Europeans' message of solidarity and compassion, and reiterate that Japan can count on the full support of the European people.”
Reinforced controls on imported food. As regards EU controls of imports of goods from Japan - a job which comes under the responsibility of the member states -- Frédéric Vincent, spokesperson to John Dalli, the commissioner for health and consumer protection, told the press that “certain member states have told us that they are already carrying out reinforced controls”, thereby following the recommendation made by the Commission on 22 March, via RASFF, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed. No food with radioactive contamination above its maximum authorised level (under the EUROTAM regulation on December 1987) “has been detected”, said the spokesperson. He went on to reiterate that imports into the EU of food from Japan are minimal (seafood, green tea, etc) and represented just €65 million in 2010. (A.N./transl.fl)