Portal for Emergency Situations

A new platform for emergency situations has been launched in Romania, in the presence of the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides.

Mihai Pelin, 02.03.2018, 13:04

The Department for Emergency Situations of the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an online portal for emergency situations, under the name fiipregatit.ro (in English beready.ro). The portal offers information about how to react in emergency situations, such as floods, landslides, earthquakes or storms. The platform will help citizens understand the risks they are faced with and will provide information about preventive measures and how they should react when faced with such emergency situations. The platform was launched in the presence of the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides.

Also attending the event was the head of the Department for Emergency Situations Raed Arafat, who said: “This is a step forward, alongside the Department application and the caravan. So, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, which is the main institution in charge when it comes to such situations, has again taken a step towards getting the population more prepared. Our role is to be prepared and it is also our responsibility to be so.

In Bucharest, the European official has also met with the Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs Carmen Dan. The two officials discussed the European project regarding the setting up of an additional task force to provide support in case of disasters. The force will benefit from resources and special civil intervention equipment, adding to the existing ones at national level, and will help the countries hit by disasters such as floods, wildfires, earthquakes and epidemics. Christos Stylianides has stated that Romania is a key player in terms of civil protection assistance and has the necessary capabilities to take part in the future project managed by the European Commission. In turn, minister Carmen Dan hailed the idea of setting up an additional intervention force.

Carmen Dan: “I believe that the member states must maintain the command and control of the RescEU resources, with the Commission taking charge of operational coordination. Specialists with the Ministry of Internal Affairs say that this approach will render RescEU most effective.

This initiative comes against the background of natural disasters getting more complex in the past years, such disasters having hit many European countries quite severely. In 2017 alone, more than 200 people were killed by natural disasters and approximately one million hectares of forest were destroyed. Natural disasters also have a major economic impact. Since 1980, the member states have registered losses of more than 360 billion euros, following extreme weather and climate events.(Translated by M. Ignatescu)