20/12/2023 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 20 December, the European Commission announced that it had allocated €690 million to the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Romania to strengthen the ‘RescEU’ strategic reserves of medical equipment and supplies for dealing with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) events. The reserves are part of the RescEU medical stocks of the EU’s civil protection mechanism, funded by the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). This new funding brings to 16 the number of countries hosting RescEU stocks, with 21 medical reserves or CBRNs strategically distributed across the EU. The new funding follows on from existing reserves already set up in Croatia, France, Poland and Finland. (LC)