mr president summers are hotter and storms are more severe
rainfall is more erratic and we have more droughts causing life-threatening fires across our continent
hardly a country has escaped a natural disaster in the last few years and this is not counting the man-made catastrophes such as chernobyl and more recently the toxic dam in hungary
citizens look to their elected representatives to ensure the planning for their protection is efficient and reliable and in place
we have had many promises and reports from the commission yet little concrete action has been forthcoming
we have been promised progress in setting up a network of competent national services in member states
a map of assets that is readily available and ready to use when disaster strikes was promised in two thousand and nine
national authorities should now be requested to put core equipment on standby available for rapid european assistance when needed
in my own region we have in bracknell the world-renowned medium-range weather forecasting centre
its information assists mariners aircraft and emergency planners from a range of real-time sources around the world but we need more than these sorts of facilities
we need to know where the trained emergency service teams are
we need to know where the emergency food supplies the tents and the blankets are
we need to know where the facilities are that will save the lives of citizens of our union when they need them
the commission must come forward with these plans now
tomorrow's disaster may be just around the corner
