Southeast Asia Information Port (www.dnyxxg.com) – The European Union announced on March 5th that it has activated its civil defense mechanism to assist several member states in evacuating their citizens from the Middle East following the US-Israel military action against Iran.
According to a statement released by the European Commission that day, as of March 5th, ten member states—Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus—had requested the activation of the EU civil defense mechanism to assist in organizing evacuation flights from the Middle East.
The statement indicated that, with the support of the European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre, six evacuation flights departed from the Middle East on March 4th and 5th, successively arriving in Bulgaria, Italy, Austria, and Slovakia.
The statement said that as more member states request the activation of the EU civil defense mechanism, the EU plans to coordinate more evacuation flights in the coming days to bring back EU citizens stranded in the Middle East.
The EU civil defense mechanism was established in 2001 to coordinate responses by participating countries to natural disasters, major accidents, and emergencies in Europe and other regions. Currently, all 27 EU member states are participating, along with Norway, Iceland, Serbia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, and Ukraine.
The European Commission stated in its announcement that following the US-Israel military action against Iran on February 28, a large number of EU citizens were stranded in the Middle East, parts of the Asia-Pacific region, and Africa due to airport closures. In addition to coordinating repatriation flights, the EU will provide consular protection by subsidizing transportation costs to bring EU citizens back from the Middle East. (End)
