The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus has accumulated good experience in participating in EU technical assistance projects - expert

November 25, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus has accumulated good experience in participating in European Technical Assistance Programs project competitions. This opinion was expressed by the Executive Director of the EU TACIS Program Coordination Bureau, Leonid Orlov, today in Vitebsk at a regional conference of EU TACIS Program projects, according to a BELTA correspondent. "The Ministry of Emergency Situations is an undisputed leader among government agencies in the success of application competitions," he said. At the same time, the Executive Director of the EU TACIS Program noted that the Ministry of Emergency Situations develops the entire project - from the idea and problem statement to equipment procurement. The most successful project was "Strengthening Regional Capacity for Prevention and Response to Chemical Accidents with Transboundary Consequences in the Belarus-Latvia-Lithuania Region," designed for 2008-2009. It included training rescuers, educating the public on actions in emergency situations, and acquiring special equipment and gear. For example, Vitebsk rescuers conducted an operation to clean a riverbed from hydrocarbon pollution for the first time, and the Grodno Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations acquired a geographic positioning system for precise determination of the location of an emergency. The final stage of the project was large-scale exercises of Belarusian rescuers with the participation of their Latvian and Lithuanian colleagues in the Vitebsk and Grodno regions in the summer-autumn of the current year. More than 1.1 million euros were allocated for the project implementation. -0-