EU deploys rescEU aircraft for first time to repatriate citizens from Middle East

The European Commission has activated its own rescEU aviation capacity for the first time to bring home European citizens stranded in the Middle East, marking a new operational step for the EU’s crisis response system.

Key points

• 356 EU citizens repatriated on two flights from Oman to Romania.
• Flights were chartered directly by the Commission after a request from Romanian authorities.
• The operation was coordinated through the Emergency Response Coordination Centre under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

This is the first time rescEU’s dedicated transport and logistics capacity—introduced in September 2025—has been used for consular repatriation operations.

Wider evacuation effort

In addition to these flights, the EU has already supported:

• 42 repatriation flights
• More than 4,100 European citizens evacuated

Citizens have been returned to multiple countries, including Belgium, Italy, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and several others.

Countries requesting assistance

So far, 23 countries have asked for EU support, including:

• France
• Ireland
• Poland
• Finland
• Slovenia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Montenegro

Additional evacuation flights are planned in the coming days.

How rescEU works

The rescEU fleet acts as a last-resort EU capability when no member state can provide transport. Under this mechanism:

• The EU can cover up to 100% of transport costs.
• Standard EU-supported repatriation flights normally cover up to 75% of costs, provided at least 30% of passengers are from other EU countries.

While the EU funds and coordinates transport, consular operations remain the responsibility of national governments, supported locally by the European External Action Service and EU delegations.