EU launches new European Medical Corps to respond faster to emergencies

The European Union (EU) launched the new European Medical Corps to help mobilize medical and public health teams as well as equipment for emergencies inside and outside the EU, the European Commission said Monday.

Through the European Medical Corps, EU member states and other European countries participating in the system can make medical teams and assets available for rapid deployment before an emergency strikes, thus ensuring a faster and more predictable response.

The medical corps could include emergency medical teams, public health and medical coordination experts, mobile biosafety laboratories, medical evacuation planes and logistical support teams.

"The aim of the European Medical Corps is to create a much faster and more efficient EU response to health crises when they occur. We need to learn the lessons from the Ebola response; a key difficulty was mobilizing medical teams," said European Commissioner Christos Stylianides.

The framework for the European Medical Corps is part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism's new European Emergency Response Capacity, also known as the "voluntary pool."

So far, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands have committed teams and equipment to the voluntary pool. Endit