Emergency
After Sweden, Greece, too, requested the assistance of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to combat the wildfires that are raging near Athens, which have already claimed many lives and caused many wounded. The request was submitted yesterday to the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianidis who immediately “appealed to all participating countries to show their solidarity and offer assistance”. The first country to respond, the Commissioner himself announced this morning, was Cyprus, which promptly dispatched a team of 60 firefighters and four paramedics, and two fire engines. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced this morning he would send two Canadair-type planes to Greece. Commissioner Stylianidis also announced that Latvia, too, had requested help from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to tackle the fires that are destroying the forests in the north of the Baltic country.
