Commissioner Stylianides in Portugal for international disaster exercise and to discuss rescEU

Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides is visiting Lisbon today to take part in a large scale international disaster management exercise (MODEX) to train five urban search and rescue teams from Denmark, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands and Romania for a future disaster. Commissioner Stylianides will also meet with Mr Eduardo Cabrita, Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration, to discuss the next steps of rescEU, the strengthened EU Civil Protection Mechanism and its newly established reserve. Portugal, alongside other European countries, plays a crucial role in European civil protection cooperation that focusses on: (i) providing an effective collective response at European level via rescEU, and (ii) investing in disaster prevention and preparedness. At times of simultaneous disasters in Europe the newly created rescEU reserve works as a “safety net” to protect and save lives.