EU joins oil spill clean-up operation in the US

Member states send equipment to Gulf of Mexico disaster zone.

EU member states are to provide equipment to help limit the damage caused by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the European Commission announced today.

Member states and an EU agency had responded to an urgent request by the United States Coast Guard for ‘skimmers’ that can be attached to ships to remove oil from the water’s surface.

Kristalina Georgieva, the European commissioner ifor humanitarian aid and crisis response, said the EU would “stand shoulder to shoulder [with the US]…to deal with environmental disaster”.

A spokesman for the Commission said that the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) had reacted quickly to the call for aid, adding that Spain, the Netherlands and the European Maritime Safety Agency had already offered to help.

All costs of the EU’s aid will be borne by a US contracted company, the spokesman said, adding that the MIC would organise the transportation of the skimmers and a group of experts to either Houston or New Orleans in the coming days.

The EU provided assistance to the US in wake of the humanitarian crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when it sent emergency medical teams, engineers and water purification equipment.

The US authorities and engineers have been struggling to control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico since 20 April when an oil rig owned by UK company BP exploded, releasing millions of litres of oil into the water off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The oil slick has already reached the Louisiana coastline, polluting bird sanctuaries, beaches and fishing areas.

US authorities have already declared the oil spill  the worst environmental disaster in US history, saying it could take years and billions of dollars to clean up.