Madrid, 27 February 2010
The Directorate-General for Foreign Communications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation hereby issues the following communiqué:
Following the earthquake suffered by Chile this morning, registering 8.8 on the Richter Scale, Spain as holder of the rotating presidency of the European Union has activated the EU coordination mechanisms in place for these kinds of disasters. The government has also started the operations established for these types of disasters with a view to sending immediate provisional aid to Chile, once the damages caused have been evaluated and that the aid is requested by the Chilean government.
Furthermore, an initial coordination meeting has been called at the offices of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) with representatives from the ministries involved, the autonomous regional governments, local councils, civil protection and the NGOs taking part.
Spain, as holder of the rotating presidency of the EU, is willing to offer, as in the case of Haiti, all its resources in-place in the region in order to give a coordinated response to this new disaster that has once again hit a country it has strong links to.
Spain will be available to Chile for anything it may need.