Denmark opens warehouse to store EU emergency stockpile

It is among the first of ten emergency storage facilities for protective medical equipment in Europe

On 11 May, the Danish Agency for Security of Supply announced that Denmark’s warehouse for the EU’s emergency stockpile has now been completed. According to a press release by the agency, the storage facility has been established in record time and it is among the first of ten such warehouses in Europe.

The outbreak of COVID last year proved that European countries did not have access to sufficient medical and protective equipment. As such, the European Commission saw the need to establish rescEU: a reserve of medical equipment for health crises such as COVID.

Taking this further, Denmark was one of the ten countries to receive an EU grant to host the emergency stockpile. Its warehouse was established in Greve by the Danish Agency for Security of Supply and the Capital Region of Denmark; the latter will be responsible for the facility’s operations over the next several years until August 2027.

The warehouses will allow European countries to help each other

In a press release, the Director of the Danish Agency for Security of Supply Lisbet Zilmer-Johns commented: “Right from the start of the pandemic it was clear that all European countries lacked protective equipment.

A robust EU stockpile of protective equipment in Denmark, therefore, promises an important task, so that we in Europe can help each other when we are hit by a pandemic such as COVID-19. Together with the Capital Region of Denmark, we have the warehouse ready in record time, and we can now send millions of protective equipment away.”

Since it began operating, the warehouse has already reportedly sent protective equipment to Italy, Lithuania, France, Croatia, Czechia, Spain, Serbia, and North Macedonia. The equipment in the emergency stockpile contains coats, masks, face visors, gloves, etc.  

Currently, emergency warehouses have also been set up in Romania, Germany, Greece, and Belgium. Moreover, five more storage facilities are currently under development in Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands, and another in Germany.