TVLInk Europe, 50 years of protecting Europe's environment

Europe's Emergency Experts'

On 26 December 2004, a tsunami caused catastrophic devastation to the coastal areas of South and Southeast Asia. The scale of the destruction and loss of life – more than 300,000 dead – was immense and international assistance was mobilised in the hours immediately following the disaster.

This detailed news report reveals the part played by the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), the operational heart of Europe’s Civil Defence Mechanism, set up by the Commission in 2001 to co-ordinate the activities of Europe’s ‘pooled’ disaster relief resources. It also features interviews with key members of the European emergency team who were dispatched to assess immediate requirements in the wake of the tsunami crisis, before the arrival of civil defence units from the then 25 member states.

The EU’s rapid reaction capability is still in its infancy, but each mobilisation and intervention in the field adds to its experience. As an immediate result of the catastrophe in Asia, the EU decided to launch an action plan to boost its operational capacity and the visibility of its activities.