EU candidate country Moldova will soon join the Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) as a full member, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič announced on Friday 28 April in Chișinău.
He handed Moldova’s Minister of Home Affairs, Ana Revenco, the document “which paves the way for this full participation of a very active member”, saying he was “confident that this will be possible within a few months”.
The UCPM is a pan-European solidarity mechanism that allows any country - inside or outside the EU - that applies to the European Commission to receive urgent assistance in kind when faced with a natural or man-made disaster on a scale that exceeds its capacity to cope. The costs of delivering the aid are funded by the EU.
Moldova benefited from this when it received many refugees from Ukraine and on Friday even with the arrival in Chișinău of electric generators and has already shown its readiness to help, Mr Lenarčič stressed. He cited as examples the medical aid provided to Romania during the pandemic (see EUROPE 12817/32), the aid provided to Greece during the forest fires in 2021 and the aid provided to Turkey after the earthquake in February.
The latest country to join the UCPM is Ukraine (see EUROPE 13167/18) (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)