Emergency preparedness campaign 'premature'

The campaign that the National Crisis Center will launch next year to prepare the population for emergency situations, even war, is “premature” if we do not first invest in security, said Sunday the Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt in the program De Zevende Dag, on VRT.

Facing the Russian war in Ukrainegrowing geopolitical instability, or natural disasters, the European Union and its Member States want to develop in the population a culture of risk and resilience. The objective is, among other things, to know how to take shelter, evacuate or develop your own emergency plan.

At the request of the European Union, former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö recently presented a report to strengthen Europe's civil and military preparedness. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte recently declared that it was time to move on to ” to a wartime state of mind”.

Reinvest in security

The Belgian Minister of the Interior, Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), considers it important tolearn how to get out of it, without needlessly alarming the population. More for my colleague of Justice, Paul Van Tigchelt (Open Vld), one campaign of the National Crisis Center on this subject would be premature. He emphasizes the need to reinvest first in security.

“First and foremost, it is the government’s responsibility toensure the safety of citizens ; secondly, yes, it is good to have informed and resilient citizens“, he explains. “It must come from the government itself, by setting a good example, by investing in security. In this area, we have been on a drip from our American friends for decades. It's over, and Europe and Belgium should be well aware of it. We must invest in our security, we must be autonomous”he pleaded.