Slovenia will ask for EU aid to alleviate the consequences of natural disaster caused by sleet and snow in the last few days.
On 2 February, the Prime Minister of Slovenia Alenka Bratusek announced the intention of the government to ask for an EU aid after she inspected the southwestern region of the country where heavy snow and the extreme weather phenomena have caused the worst ever disaster in Slovenia's energy system.
“Many power generators are needed to restore electricity to the spreading number of communities affected by broken power lines across the country, which Slovenia does not have at moment, so the government will ask the EU for help,” Ms. Bratusek said.
“Power blackouts are no longer a local, but a nation-wide problem. Almost 88,000 customers or nearly 10 per cent of households across the country are without electricity due to ice and sleet,” said Slovenian Defence Minister Roman Jakic who visited the snow-hit region with Ms. Bratusek. The Defence Minister added that the Slovenian military is ready to support the civil rescue staff with personnel and machinery. Some homes and other customers in the area around Postojna and Pivka have been without electricity since early on Friday and armed forces have been called in to supply them with power generators.
Today, the European Commission announced that assistance in the form of electricity generators is reaching Slovenia.Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic offered technical experts and electricity generators within hours, and they already arrived in the EU country. Other countries, participating in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, are also exploring means to help Slovenia to deal with the emergency.
"We've seen an impressive gesture of European solidarity with this immediate response to an emergency affecting thousands of citizens in one of our Member States. This efficient assistance operation is just the latest demonstration of the value of our cooperation in civil protection," said Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union Commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response.