EU donates protective equipment to Serbia worth € 857,000

EU info centar

The European Union donated protective masks and gloves worth 857,000 euros to Serbia under a special instrument for emergencies (rescEU), the EU Info Center said on Friday.

The donation includes 310,000 FFP2 masks, 730,000 surgical masks and 730,000 pairs of protective gloves that were delivered to the Interior Ministry warehouse.

The equipment arrived from stocks in Belgium and Romania, is part of an EU donation to Serbia through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Serbia is the largest user of the rescEU instrument in Europe during the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

So far, the country has received personal protective equipment worth 6.8 million Euro.

The EU has helped Serbia fight coronavirus through various donations, funding the hiring of medical workers, transporting hundreds of tons of medical supplies, donating millions of personal protective equipment, buying ambulances, and decontaminating.

„Let’s never forget one thing. It’s a relief that we feel when our loved ones and we are protected from health risks. I am proud of this consistent expression of solidarity, not only because the EU is generally the largest donor to Serbia, but also because it remains the largest donor when it is most needed and supported Serbia’s health system long before this pandemic broke out,“ Mateja Norcic Stamar, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, said.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism facilitates cooperation in emergency response, preparation and prevention between member states, as well as several other European countries.

Serbia became a member of the Mechanism in 2015. Still, even before that, during the devastating floods in May 2014, it felt the benefits of European solidarity through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The operation was one of the largest since the Mechanism was established, the statement said.