EU considers creating disaster reaction force

The European Union is considering setting up an international reaction force able to deal with disasters such as the Asian tsunamis.
A crisis management corps could be made up of about 5,000 experts identified by national governments, trained together and placed under central co-ordination in an emergency, the EU's external relations Commissioner said.
"I would like to see the EU rapidly developing the capacity to deploy experts, with rapid reaction teams in disaster relief, fire-fighting, emergency reconstruction, on standby," Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the Financial Times in an interview.
This European or international civil protection force, dubbed 'red helmets', would group and coordinate existing resources, he told Europe 1 radio.
"Firemen, technicians, doctors, vaccinators, mobile hospitals, in short all the means you need to deal with a humanitarian emergency, and these means would be used to working together, these people would be trained together," he said.
"It would consist of national or regional units ... which in case of emergency and depending on the nature of catastrophes, would set off together in Europe or outside of Europe."

Source: Reuters via ReliefWeb