Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami which devastated Japan on March 2011, President Barroso and President Van Rompuy expressed the European Union's solidarity and condolences to the people and government of Japan, and to the families of the victims at this difficult time. Further to it, and given the worrying situation caused by damages in Japan's nuclear plants, the Commission established contacts with Japanese sources, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the established emergency networks in Europe, like ECURIE.

Inside the Commission, a coordination group has been established in the context of European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange (ECURIE) to inform Member States so that the EU is at the same level of information. According to the information released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) incident and emergency centre on Saturday 12 March, first explosion occurred at Unit 1 Fukushima Dai-ichi. A second exposition would have also affected a nuclear plant on 14 March and signs of smoke were seen rising from reactor 3 at Fukushima plant.

Further to this situation Commissioner Oettinger will invite national nuclear safety authorities, nuclear power plant vendors and operators for a meeting in Brussels to jointly assess the consequences of the accident as well as the lessons that can be drawn from the events in Japan. If required, pro-active actions will be taken to address to situation in the EU.

Civil Protection Mechanism activated

Earlier in the weekend, the European Commission activated at the request of Japan the European Civil Protection Mechanism to provide assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. Japan has requested search and rescue teams and search dogs for ongoing operations. The European Commission's humanitarian and civil protection department (ECHO) is continuously monitoring the situation in Japan and the other countries where tsunamis could hit.

Although Japan is one of the best-prepared countries in the world to cope with disasters, the sheer magnitude of this earthquake and the tsunami means that international assistance is needed, Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva pointed out, adding that "Europe's civil protection system has been fully mobilised to help Japan overcome this immense tragedy.

According to the needs, Participating States can mobilise various types of civil protection assistance (search and rescue teams, advanced medical posts, field hospitals and medical teams, engineers and technical support teams, etc.). Two teams of European civil protection experts, currently in Indonesia, stand ready for deployment to the affected area if needed.

Since its creation in 2001, the Mechanism has been activated for over a hundred disasters in Member States as well as worldwide, including in last year's earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the floods in Pakistan, the forest fires in Russia and Israel. Most recently, the European civil protection system was mobilised to assist in the evacuation effort of European citizens from Libya.