A team of European doctors and nurses from Romania and Norway, deployed through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, is being immediately dispatched to Milan and Bergamo to help Italian medical staff battling coronavirus. Austria has also offered over 3,000 litres of disinfectant to Italy via the Mechanism. The Commission will coordinate and co-finance this European assistance.

President Ursula von der Leyen said: “These nurses and doctors, who left their homes to help their colleagues in other Member States are the true faces of European solidarity. The whole of Europe is proud of you. The Commission is doing everything it can to help Italy and all our Member States at this time of great need.”

Today, the European Commission has decided to create a strategic rescEU stockpile of medical equipment such as ventilators and protective masks to help EU countries in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Ursula von der Leyen said: “With the first ever common European reserve of emergency medical equipment we put EU solidarity into action. It will benefit all our Member States and all our citizens. Helping one another is the only way forward.”

Statement by European Commission leaders

Download the italians guidelines regarding operational risk management connected to the COVID-19 emergency.

Italian content

Representatives of the agricultural, fire-fighting and forestry world met on January 12 in Narbonne around the Entente Valabre and the Ecole de Bazas, with 2 objectives.

S Lahaye (Safe), J Goldammer (GFMC) and N Prat (Pau Costa Foundation) attended the OECD Conference on Adapting to a changing climate in the management of wildfires 16-17 January in Paris OECD facilities.