Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-22-Speech-3-294"
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"en.20090422.52.3-294"2
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"Mr President, the Commission sends its condolences to all families who have lost their loved ones in the recent earthquake in Italy.
The Commission has been in close contact with the Italian civil protection authorities since the first hours after the earthquake. Member States started offering their help through the Community Civil Protection Mechanism at a very early stage of the disaster.
While this earthquake was very powerful and brought a lot of destruction, national resources were able to cope with the immediate disaster response.
However, on 10 April Italy made a request for technical experts who could support the country in analysing the stability of buildings damaged by the earthquake. A team of eight national and Commission experts was selected. The team was despatched to the site of the earthquake on 18 April. In addition to the assessment of the stability of the buildings, the team will propose solutions with regard to damaged buildings.
The Commission is currently cooperating with the Italian authorities in order to identify options for other EU support. Possibilities may include the EU Solidarity Fund and the reprogramming of the Structural and Rural Development Funds.
This earthquake is a tragic reminder that natural disasters are a continual threat for all Member States. Over the last decade earthquakes, heat waves, forest fires, floods and storms have killed many people in Europe and destroyed costly infrastructure and precious natural spaces.
The Member States and the Community need to combine their strength to prevent disasters and their impacts and to ensure a rapid and effective European response to major disasters. Experience has shown that an integrated and multi-hazard approach should be taken to develop effective measures in both in prevention and in direct response to disasters, as outlined in the Commission communication of March 2008 on reinforcing the Union’s disaster-response capacity.
Furthermore, in February 2009 the Commission adopted a Community approach on the prevention of natural and man-made disasters that represents the state of the art and paves a way for future Commission initiatives. It suggests improving the consistency of existing prevention instruments and complementing them, thus reinforcing the added value of EU action.
The Commission would welcome feedback from the European Parliament on the approach proposed in this important communication. Furthermore, thanks to the preparatory action on an EU rapid response capability introduced by the European Parliament in the 2008 and 2009 budgets, the Commission is currently testing, with the Member States, ways to improve the overall immediate response capacity of the EU. Together, these initiatives are contributing to shaping a genuine European disaster management policy for all types of disaster."@en1
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