Commissioner Lahbib Addresses Romanian Parliament on Equality, Preparedness and Humanitarian Aid

Key points

• Romania's female employment rate is nearly 19 percentage points lower than men's, widening to nearly 27 points in rural areas; Romania has built 110 new nurseries with EU recovery funds.
• The EU has proposed a new Union Civil Protection Mechanism regulation and adopted strategies on stockpiling, medical countermeasures, water resilience and a comprehensive wildfire plan.
• Romania requested Civil Protection Mechanism help ten times over the past decade while assisting other countries 49 times; this summer 200 Romanian firefighters were pre-positioned across southern Europe.
• The EU is building its first comprehensive Risk and Threat Assessment connecting security threats, natural disasters, technological risk and health crises, and has proposed a Crisis Coordination Hub.
• The speech cited climate change, hybrid attacks, a drone crash in Galați, Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks; Romania's Cernavoda nuclear plant shut down because the Danube lacked enough water to cool it.
• The EU will publish practical guidance so families, not just ministries, know how to prepare.
• The EU stressed it remains a leading humanitarian donor and called on others to do their fair share.