The European Union has allocated over 1 million euros to Belarus, Lithuania, and Latvia for a project on preventing chemical accidents

May 28, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. The European Union has allocated over 1 million euros to Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania for a project to prevent chemical accidents. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the press secretary of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus, Vitaly Novitsky. He is participating today in an international meeting of representatives of the Ministries of Emergency Situations of the project's participating countries, which is taking place on May 28-29 in Vitebsk. The international technical assistance project "Strengthening Regional Capacity for Prevention and Response to Chemical Accidents with Transboundary Consequences in the Belarus-Latvia-Lithuania Region" is designed for 2008-2009. It provides for the purchase of specialized equipment - a chemical protection vehicle, special suits, boats and other items, large-scale exercises, the publication of methodological recommendations for specialists, training citizens in safety measures, as well as 90 mobile stands and 92 thousand brochures for public information. Equipment worth about 800 thousand euros will be purchased in the first half of 2009, noted Vitaly Novitsky. The main part of it will remain in the Vitebsk region. This is partly due to the fact that two man-made accidents occurred here in March and May 2007 as a result of breaks in the "Unecha-Ventspils" oil pipeline. At the current meeting of the international working group on project implementation, the main attention is paid to the exchange of experience in informing the public, and opportunities for effective cooperation in this area with the media and other issues are discussed. In addition, participants will share their experience in preventing and eliminating various accidents. -0-