The Emergency Fire and Rescue Unit (EFRU), has joined four fellow rescue teams from Europe to give birth to Europe’s first association of volunteering civil protection teams, the Euro Star.

Team members from the unit participated in an international rescue simulation – Rescue 2014 – organised by the Italian Edelweiss in the mountainous region of Calabria.

The exercise has become an annual tradition and a yearly appointment for EFRU members to meet fellow rescuers from other countries. This year’s exercise saw the participation of rescue teams from Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Serbia, Hungary, Great Britain and the US.

The Rescue 2014 operation was not all there was to this year’s trip to Calabria. Following the international 24-hour exercise. EFRU leaders sat down with leaders of four other volunteering rescue teams to launch the European Association of Civil Protection Volunteer Teams.

The association foresees the long-term collaboration of several European rescue teams, all of which operate voluntarily. The five founder member teams are Malta’s EFRU, the Italian Edelweiss, the Elite Special Task Force of Greece, the Cyprus Civil Protection Volunteer Corps and the Escola Portuguesa de Salvamento from Portugal.

The purpose behind Euro Star is to create a common European platform for collaboration and the sharing of best practices within the field of rescue and emergency response.

The signing of the association’s statute is being considered as the first step towards what will eventually be a unified rescue team made up of volunteering members from across Europe and fully-equipped to respond in cases of emergency in countries within the EU and beyond.

The EFRU will occupy the association presidency for the first six months.