Bulgarian MEP Ivailo Kalfin asked the European Commission what it is doing to protect the life and health of people and to mitigate the effects of Monday's accident in Western Hungary in which toxic sludge flooded out of a burst dam at a large aluminium plant, Kalfin's office at the European Parliament said on Saturday.

He used the fastest procedure, an oral question, in order to hear the Commission's response before the sludge, with its high content of heavy metals, flows into the Danube River proper.

Kalfin asked about the risk of pollution of the Danube's lower reaches, the possible consequences for transport services and other hindrances caused by the accident to the people in the four Danubian countries of the EU: Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Serbia.

The parliamentarian expects the Commission to publicize the possibilities for the countries affected by the spill to apply for financing from EU funds and programmes in order to compensate individuals and corporate entities for the damage and, above all, to restore the environmental balance in Europe's largest river basin.

Kalfin is likely to receive a response during the October Session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (October 18-21).

Meanwhile, the European Commission reported that a team of EU experts will travel to Hungary at the request of the country's authorities and will begin work on Sunday. European Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, who is Bulgarian, said that the quick formation of the team, with many proposals for support coming from EU countries, "clearly shows that European solidarity works." She expressed the Commission's support for the Hungarian authorities in their efforts to assist the victims of the environmental disaster and to limit its adverse impact on the environment.

Source: BTA