This winter is a matter of sheer survival for Ukrainians, warns EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Protection Janez Lenarčič. All EU member states should now brace themselves for a second wave of refugees.
Die Presse: When you were appointed commissioner in December 2019, would you have expected that you would be desperately looking for electricity generators to help the Ukrainians get through this winter of war?
Janez Lenarčič: No I haven’t. So far, this portfolio has been relatively manageable. On average, we activated our EU Civil Protection Mechanism about 20 times a year. Since the beginning of this commission’s term of office, however, there have been more than 100 every year: first because of the pandemic, with masks, ventilators, vaccines, now because of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
In this statistic, we individually count each request from each country that is made for the same reason. So, in those 100 requests, Ukraine is listed as one – but under that heading, Ukraine has already requested assistance more than 100 times. And when it comes to humanitarian aid, the situation is no better. Next year, more than 330 million people around the world will need humanitarian assistance: double the number four years ago. And on top of that we are seeing a very worrying trend of more frequent extreme weather events, in the form of floods and wildfires. This shows that we are in the middle of the climate crisis.