EU Commissioner for Preparedness Lahbib to visit Helsinki

The EU Commissioner for Equality and for Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib will visit Helsinki on Friday 3 October. She will meet Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen and Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen. The visit to Finland is on the invitation of Minister of the Interior Rantanen. On Thursday Commissioner Lahbib was in Oulu to observe the international Rescue Borealis field training exercise.

The topics to be discussed by Minister Rantanen and Commissioner Lahbib include changes in the security environment and the reform of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

“I wish to thank the Commission for the proposal concerning the reform of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which also includes significant additional funding. Even if each Member State has the main responsibility for its own preparedness, appropriate actions at the EU level can bring important added value. This is why it is very important to take the dramatic and long-lasting changes in our security environment into account in the funding as well. In many respects Finland is one of the leading countries in preparedness but, as a country on the EU’s external border with Russia, we also have indispensable needs related to this,” Minister Rantanen says.

The meeting will take place on the patrol vessel Turva, which the Border Guard uses in the surveillance of the critical underwater infrastructure as well as for other security tasks in the marine areas.

During the day, Commissioner Lahbib will also visit the Merihaka civil defence shelter to learn about civil protection and the civil defence shelter system in Finland.

The topic to be discussed with Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen is preparedness and gender equality.

“We will talk about the important role of the social welfare and health sector for preparedness and readiness in the whole Europe, and how Finland has unwaveringly promoted equality in the EU and strongly supports the preparation of the EU Gender Equality Strategy,” Minister Grahn-Laasonen says.

Commissioner Lahbib will also meet senior public officials of the Ministry of Defence. In addition, she will visit the National Emergency Supply Agency and the Model European Parliament youth event.

Inquiries:
Kimmo Kohvakka, Director General for Rescue Services, tel. +358 295 488 400, [email protected]