Four European Union member states - France, Estonia, Belgium and Austria - have offered assistance after Romania activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism following floods that left the north-eastern part of the country hard-hit, the European Commission said on July 4 2010.

The European Civil Protection Mechanism facilitates co-operation in disaster response.

The European Commission said that Romania's July 2 request for assistance in form of inflatable dams, pumps, power generators, water purification systems, lighting kits and other material was immediately communicated to all participating states through the Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC).

Within hours after the activation of the system, France, Estonia, Belgium and Austria made their first offers for assistance, some of which had been accepted by Romania and were on their way to the flooded area.

"Once again Europe has witnessed new examples of solidarity when disaster strikes. I would like to convey my appreciation to the countries that have come to the aid of Romania, and my solidarity to the Romanian people suffering the consequences of the flood. I will use the lessons learnt during recent disasters in Central and Eastern Europe to find ways to improve and reinforce our disaster response capacity in the future", said Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Co-operation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.

France has offered five pumps, eight power generators and a water purification unit, which will be staffed by a team of 30 people.

Estonia has indicated that the Commission funded BaltFloodCombat High Capacity Pumping module, which is composed by a joint Baltic team with Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian participants, is ready to be moved to Romania if required.

Austria has offered 10 dirty water pumps and three power generators. Belgium has offered 11 pumps, five power generators, a water purification unit and its conditioning unit. These equipments will be manned by six people.

Romania had accepted the Belgian and Austrian offers, the European Commission said.

The Belgian convoy departed on the morning of July 4 and was to pick up assistance provided by Austria on the way. Assistance is scheduled to arrive in Romania on the evening of July 5.

The offers of France and Estonia were still under consideration by the Romanian authorities, the European Commission said.