go to the original language article
“””
Brussels – The European Union must continue to strengthen solidarity, both among member states and in relations with the rest of the world, even with a more right-wing political composition of institutions, said the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, to Slovenian correspondents in Brussels on Thursday. Solidarity includes both humanitarian aid and civil protection.
According to Lenarčič, the fact is that the upcoming European Commission, which is expected to take office on December 1, will be different from the outgoing one. In the new commission, the majority will be representatives of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), to which President Ursula von der Leyen also belongs. The European Parliament has also shifted to the right, said the outgoing European Commissioner from Slovenia.
“I hope this does not mean that less attention will be paid to the area of development and humanitarian aid. If Europe isolates itself, tries to fence itself off, and is not in solidarity with the rest of the world, it will come back to haunt us. Europe is not an island, the world is increasingly interdependent and connected,” he emphasized.
Regarding the needs for humanitarian aid, he emphasized that the number of people in the world who need it has tripled in the last five years. More than 300 million people currently need humanitarian aid, mainly due to wars and conflicts.
The Middle East crisis marks the conclusion of Lenarčič’s five-year term in the European Commission. Just two months after the commission started its mandate in December 2019, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and as it was ending, the Russian aggression against Ukraine began in February 2022. The EU is also helping Ukraine in facing Russian aggression through its civil protection mechanism, among other things, it has delivered more than 8,000 generators for supplying electricity to Ukraine, more than 3,000 of which are from the EU’s strategic rescEU reserve.
Lenarčič described the expansion of this reserve as one of the important achievements of his mandate in the field of civil protection. Five years ago, it included only 12 firefighting planes. Today, there are 28, and according to the commissioner, the EU has established its own reserves in other areas as well, including the aforementioned energy, as well as health, temporary accommodation, and chemical, radiological, nuclear, and biological protection. (November 21)