By Emily Smith - 25th March 2004
Brussels on Thursday called for a cash boost to the EU fight against terrorism and natural disasters.
A joint proposal from the European Commission’s environment and regional directorates would see more money pumped into a three-year old ‘civil protection force’, set up primarily to provide assistance in the wake of catastrophes such as forest fires and floods.
Things have hotted up in recent days, with terrorist attacks Spain leading to increasingly vociferous calls for improved citizen protection and support.
Regional policy commissioner Michel Barnier said “We want to do more and we want to do better - we are all affected by such a tragedy as that in Madrid”.
“We can no longer improvise – we are going through a time of insecurity and need to put our house in order.”
But whilst stressing the need for more money to achieve this, Barnier admitted “We haven’t been able to pin anyone down yet on the budgetary issue”.
The civil protection force’s current budget is a mere €1.5 million per year, compared to the €25 million spent by national EU authorities on mobilising aid forces outside their home territory.
The commission would also like member states to provide ‘detailed inventories’ of their equipment and personnel, in the hope that this would facilitate intervention in the wake of a disaster.
Currently the various member states are not aware of each others resources.
The civil protection force has since 2001 provided help following floods across Europe, forest fires in Portugal, earthquakes in Iran and Morocco, and the Prestige oil spill which devastated the Spanish coast.
“But would we be currently be capable of acting together in the event of a terrorist attack using chemical weapons?” asked Barnier on Thursday.
“My answer is no.”
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