The role of the European Centre for Coordination of the Response to Emergency Situations is an extremely important and efficient one, as evidenced by the interventions during the pandemic, the refugee crisis in Ukraine, the fires in several countries or the earthquake in Turkey, the secretary of state with the Internal Affairs Ministry, Raed Arafat, told AGERPRES.
„The European Coordination Centre within the European Civil Protection Mechanism has seen itself best in the last period in the way in which it has acted, in coordination at European level, on the response and cooperation within the major emergency situations we have faced. We are talking here about the pandemic, the refugee crisis in Ukraine and the intervention in Turkey, in addition to other interventions, such as those of forest fires in Greece, France and other countries. The role of this centre has proved to be extremely effective and extremely important in order to put all the European forces together in a form of cooperation and solidarity at European level, not only within the European Union and outside the EU. Romania, during the pandemic, during the refugee crisis and at the intervention of the earthquake in Turkey, plus the interventions to the forest fires outside Romania, in Greece and France, has always activated under this centre and this mechanism of European civil protection,” the secretary of state said.
Raed Arafat added that this center helps to make emergency responses more efficient, faster. The number of states involved in this mechanism is higher than those that make up the European Union.
„The existence of a European coordination centre allows us to work more efficiently, more quickly and to gain time in coordinating our activities together as member states of the mechanism, so that we can intervene with efficiency in situations where we go in support of or outside other states of the mechanism. The mechanism has as member states a higher number than the states that make up the European Union,” Raed Arafat said.
During the pandemic and the refugee crisis in Ukraine, the Emergency Department collaborated with this centre.
„During the pandemic and the refugee crisis, we collaborated with the centre, including by setting up the European humanitarian assistance hub for Ukraine, and in the case of the pandemic, we executed 32 missions, under the coordination of the hub, mostly correlated with the pandemic, such as medical teams that were sent to Italy, Slovakia, Moldova and Tunisia. And also when Romania needed help, under the same coordination centre, we received support from several countries, including in coordinating the sending of patients in critical condition with COVID during the fourth wave to other European countries,” Raed Arafat said.
