European Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management

Louis Michel as commissioner

After the Israeli-Lebanese conflict in 2006 the Commissioner visited Lebanon and called for €30 million to repair the damage there. The Parliament's development committee was cautious though about the expenditure and he was also criticised for his slow response with one MEP comparing him to "a fireman who arrives at the scene after the fire has gone out". In the same debate MEPs attacked the Commissioner for "appearing partial in the Congolese elections" in describing Joseph Kabila as "the hope of Congo". Michel responded by saying he would have said the same about any candidate in the democratic elections. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/028-10126-240-08-35-903-20060828IPR10123-28-08-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm

Louis Michel has caused some mild controversy in 2007 among MEPs when it became known that he is to take leave from his work to compete in Belgian elections. Generally Commissioners are meant to remain above national politics and the European Parliament's development committee asked the Parliament's legal service to assess if his participation violates the treaties. http://www.europeanvoice.com/current/article.asp?id=27791 During his absence (12 May 2007 onwards), Commissioner Rehn took over his duties.

European Medical Corps

The European Medical Corps (EMC) is a civilian incident response team that was launched on 15 February 2016 by the European Union to provide an emergency response force to deal with outbreaks of epidemic disease anywhere in the world. The EMC was formed after the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa when the WHO was criticized for a slow and insufficient response in the early stages of the Ebola outbreak.

The framework for the European Medical Corps is part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism's new European Emergency Response Capacity (otherwise known as the 'voluntary pool').

The EMC is part of the emergency response capacity of European countries. Teams from nine EU member states—Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden – are available for deployment in an emergency. The EMC consists of medical teams, public health teams, mobile biosafety laboratories, medical evacuation capacities, experts in public health and medical assessment and coordination, and technical and logistics support. Any country in need of assistance can make a request to the Emergency Response Coordination Centre, part of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department.

The first deployment of the EMC was announced by the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection on 12 May 2016, a response to the outbreak of yellow fever in Angola in 2016.

List of Commissioners

References

References

1. (2013). "The European Union as Crisis Manager: Patterns and Prospects". Cambridge University Press.
2. "European Commission – PRESS RELEASES – Press release – EU launches new European Medical Corps to respond faster to emergencies".
3. (28 November 2015). "Will Ebola change the game? Ten essential reforms before the next pandemic. The report of the Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola". The Lancet.
4. "European Emergency Response Capacity – Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection – European Commission".
5. "European Medical Corps part of the European Emergency Response Capacity".
6. "Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) – Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection – European Commission".
7. "EU sends new medical corps team to Angola yellow fever outbreak".