The European Commission organized a field exercise on disaster preparedness, “ARETE 2014”, on Thursday that simulates a complex chemical and terrorism situation including hostage-taking. The exercise was overseen by Jan Jambon, Vice Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior of Belgium, Christos Stylianides, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, and Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship.

Mr. Stylianides said that the ARETE 2014 exercise was a sound example of collective work that demonstrates the importancwe of team work. “ARETE 2014 is a first-time example of highly representative and visually enhanced modelling of civil protection and law enforcement intervention on local, regional, national and EU level. We must recognize the collective work of DG ECHO and DG HOME. They have been working jointly together to prepare and conduct ARETE 2014 in close cooperation with the Belgian authorities,” said Mr. Sylianides. “There is no question that preparedness is the key in order to prevent disasters and minimize the impact of catastrophes. Our era is characterized by frequent, intense and complex disasters. From the floods in European countries, to the Ebola offense to terrorist attacks.”

On his part, Mr. Avramopoulos said that ARETE 2014 is a tangible example of how the EU can foster solidarity. “The participation of teams from a number of EU countries – France, Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Austria – both from civil protection and law enforcement, demonstrates how EU Member States can be more effective by joining forces,” he said. “Europe is confronted with unprecedented threats to its internal security. The foreign fighters’ phenomenon poses a great threat to Europe’s internal security. This threat is unlikely to decrease in the near future so we need to be ready to respond swiftly and efficiently, in case the exercise scenario that we just witnessed would become a reality.The European Union needs to provide a manifold response in terms of prevention, protection of critical infrastructure and preparedness.”