Survival package and coordinated response: so the EU is getting ready for wars and disaster | EUROtoday

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There are water and one thing to eat, glasses and medicines, but additionally a power-bag and slightly money, “because in the middle of a crisis the cash is sovereign and your credit card risks being only a piece of plastic”. It is the survival package for 72 hours illustrated in a video posted on social media by Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for the preparation and administration of crises.

A film of simply over a minute and a half, between the intense and the ironic, widespread together with an initiative which, nevertheless, Brussels takes very severely: the presentation of the technique on the EU preparation, in follow a plan to deal with various kinds of emergencies, from pure disasters to IT assaults and geopolitical crises, together with the potential of armed aggressions towards the international locations of the European Union.

And though the plan – in thirty steps, between concrete measures that will probably be adopted in Brussels and legislative options to nationwide governments – issues exactly extensive -spectrum emergencies, it’s unattainable to not join it to the security dangers perceived in Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, three years in the past, and the latest hallway indicators proven by the Trump Administration. The identical commissioner Lahbib himself explicitly specific, presenting the plan on the press convention: having “450 million citizens – he said – means 450 million reasons to be better prepared. The current threats that Europe is facing are more complex than ever and are all interconnected: in the last three years in Ukraine we have seen a battlefield with bullets, drones, combat planes, trenches and submarines. Yes, European security is directly threatened by this ».

In addition to encouraging citizens to put aside food stocks, water and other essential goods for 72 hours, the plan – inspired by national models already prepared in France, Finland or Sweden and developed in the wake of the relationship to strengthen European security, commissioned by Brussels to the former Finnish president Sauli Niinistö – provides for the establishment of a hub UE to coordinate the response to crises. Lahbib has added that the European Union should constitute a “strategic reserve” and store critical resources, including fire -fighting planes, medical, energy and transport equipment and specialized means against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

On a more general level, referring to the entire case of the plan, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed itself. “The new realities – he underlined – require a brand new degree of preparation in Europe. Our residents, our Member States and our firms want the fitting instruments to behave each to forestall crises and to react shortly when a catastrophe happens. Families dwelling in flood areas ought to know what to do when the waters stand up. Early alert techniques can forestall the areas affected by forest fireplace from dropping treasured time. Europe is able to help member states and trusted companions within the neighborhood to save lots of lives and livelihoods “.