Three hundred and fifty Europeans evacuated from Wuhan

The European Union is moving to respond to the Coronavirus emergency. And it does so at the request of France. The European Commission has decided to activate the so-called ‘Civil Protection Mechanism’ to return ‘trapped’ European citizens to Wuhan, the area where the first outbreak of the epidemic broke out. It means that tomorrow the first of two planes will leave France to bring home around 250 French citizens. Another 100 European citizens will leave on a second flight, expected in the coming days.

“The EU does not forget its citizens wherever they are in the world – says Janez Lenarčič, commissioner for crisis management – We are in constant contact with the Member States, the European delegations in the Chinese region and the Chinese embassy in Brussels. Additional European aid can be provided on request. ” “We are ready to support the Member States and to ensure a strong and coordinated response from Europe on the coronavirus emergency, inside and outside the EU – says Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides – We will continue to monitor the situation with the European center prevention and will remain in contact with member states “.

The costs of flights to Wuhan will be financed by the European Union. Tomorrow morning the first plane will leave France, the second in the next few days. The first to go up will be the French, the others to follow. It is a first European response to the emergency, others will follow in the coming days. Once they arrive, citizens from Wuhan will be quarantined in ways yet to be established but being defined in contacts between Brussels and the Member States.

The European ‘Civil Protection Mechanism’ is used to deal with emergencies such as coronavirus. All the Member States participate, as well as Iceland, Norway, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey, countries that are not in the EU but are neighboring.