European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said on Thursday that over the past 10 years Romania has requested assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism 10 times and has responded to calls for help from other countries nearly 50 times.

'Romania has built a strong emergency response system, but what stands out is this: you have made it available to others. Over the past 10 years, Romania has requested assistance through the Civil Protection Mechanism 10 times. During those same 10 years, Romania has responded to calls for help from others 49 times. 49 times, Romania has stepped forward to provide assistance to countries in need. (...) This is what the Civil Protection Mechanism was built for. When a country is overwhelmed and asks for help, Europe moves quickly, the Civil Protection Mechanism kicks into action. Within hours, firefighters are crossing borders, aircraft are taking to the skies, and European teams are working side by side with national emergency response teams. One country calls, Europe answers,' Hadja Lahbib said at a press conference held at the headquarters of the General Aviation Inspectorate.

According to the Commissioner, Romania has evacuated nearly 60 children from Gaza.

'This is not only about fires or floods or earthquakes; it is about getting people urgently to the medical care they need. Romania has evacuated more than 180 patients from Gaza, Ukraine, North Macedonia and Switzerland to hospitals across Europe, including 57 children from Gaza,' the European official said.

Hadja Lahbib stressed that one in four firefighters pre-positioned in Europe to respond to wildfires came from Romania.

'This year, the wildfire season started early, at the end of April. And they hit hard, I can assure you. Europe also prepared in advance. We pre-positioned nearly 800 firefighters from 14 countries in high-risk areas before the most severe fires broke out. Romania sent 200 of them. More than one in four of all firefighters pre-positioned across Europe came from Romania,' the Commissioner pointed out. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mihai Stoica; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)

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