On Thursday 31 May, the European Parliament in Strasbourg voted to upgrade the EU’s civil protection capacity in order to save lives. Parliament said the mechanism was tested to its limits to provide an effective and swift collective response to the increasing number of disasters (sometimes cross-border and simultaneous) which claimed 200 lives in Europe last year.
Voting by 431 to 99 with 97 abstentions, Parliament backed the proposal to create RescUE, a European reserve of means...