The Commission is allocating today €242 million to Finland for the development of the first rescEU chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) strategic reserve.
The Commission has already set up rescEU reserves for different areas across other EU Member States, such as the rescEU forest fighting airfleet (Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden in 2022) and the medical stockpile protective equipment and devices (Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and The Netherlands).
The CBRN strategic reserve is part of the development of an EU-level stockpiling approach of medical countermeasures to be used in health emergencies, established in the framework of the strengthened EU Civil Protection Mechanism and further elaborated with the health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).
This new reserve is the first dedicated to CBRN equipment and will include critical medical countermeasures, such as vaccines and antidotes, medical devices and field response equipment to ensure better protection and response in the aftermath of CBRN events or in preparation for high-risk situations. Funding will also be used to train staff. The goal is to strengthen CBRN expertise in Europe and ensure that capabilities and response teams are interoperable and can be deployed anywhere across the continent.
The rescEU reserves are 100% EU-financed and the European Commission maintains control of their operation in close cooperation with the countries hosting the reserves.
In an emergency, the rescEU reserves provide assistance to all EU Member States, Participating States to the Civil Protection Mechanism and can also be deployed to EU neighbouring countries.
