Brussels, Aug 8 (EFE).- France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovakia have offered “essential equipment and supplies” to help Slovenia after the destruction of the devastating floods that the country has suffered these days, reported this Tuesday the European Commission.
In particular, the six countries have made available to Slovenia excavators, mobile bridges, four helicopters, engineering units, trucks and personnel to help on the ground, explained the community spokesperson Miriam García Ferrer during a press conference of the European Commission.
“We are working to channel assistance,” said the same spokeswoman.
The president of the Community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, will travel to Slovenia on Wednesday to see first-hand, accompanied by the Crisis Management Commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, the damage caused by the floods.
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism was activated last Sunday to implement community aid.
For his part, community spokesman Adalbert Jahnz indicated that, in addition to the European Solidarity Fund, which is the specific instrument to assist Member States when there are disasters of this type, the EU has other tools such as cohesion funds, the Next Generation recovery fund and others that could be called upon depending on the scale of the damage.
In addition, the European Copernicus satellite program has produced several maps of the affected areas and a liaison officer from the EU Emergency Response Coordination Center has been posted to the area.
According to the Slovenian authorities, this is the worst flood recorded in the country in its recent history.
More than 20,000 people were left without electricity and thousands without drinking water because of the floods, considered the worst in more than 30 years.
According to the Slovenian Prime Minister, Robert Golob, the damage suffered in the road and energy infrastructures, in hundreds of homes and buildings, will exceed 500 million euros. EFE
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