Europe has been gripped by a severely cold snap and heavy snowfall for a few weeks now. Sadly hundreds of people died across our continent. Millions of others have been affected – losing electricity, being cut off with little heat or food, unable to go to school or even to reach a hospital. Country after country declared a state of emergency as whole regions were paralysed by the snow.
Many people still need help, so civil protection services are working around the clock, rescuing families trapped by avalanches, evacuatiing villages, delivering food with helocopters. My team at the Commission’s Monitoring and Information Centre has also been busy. Read the full entry
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This year’s South Asian monsoon has once again uprooted people from their homes in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan – around 12 million are affected. The European Commission’s humanitarian aid teams have been assessing the needs in the flooded areas. Humanitarian assistance from the European Union – over €24 million – is already reaching the afflicted and the vulnerable in the worst flood-hit regions.
I am currently flying back to Nairobi from the remote arid lands of the pastoral clans of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, where the impact of the drought would have been far worse if not for some remarkable projects which European taxpayers are funding.