Germany is the second EU Member State, after Romania, to host the medical equipment stockpile of RescEU’s strategic medical capacity, which has continued its shipments of protective masks against Covid-19 to Member States in difficulty, the European Commission announced on Saturday 2 May.
Batches of FFP2 masks were distributed last weekend to Italy, Spain and Croatia via the Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), the pivotal body of the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism. Italy was the beneficiary of the first distribution last week (see EUROPE 12475/8).
To date, 330,000 masks have already been delivered from the stockpile.
“More deliveries will follow. I thank Romania and Germany for being the first Member States to host the RescEU equipment”, said EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, on his Twitter account.
Germany and Romania are responsible for the procurement of medical equipment. The stockpile is 100% financed by the EU budget. The ERCC manages the distribution of the equipment, ensuring that it is sent to the countries that need it the most and that have submitted a request for assistance to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)