Chileense ambasadeur noemt geredde mijnwerkers 'voorbeeld van waar Chili toe in staat is' (en) - Hoofdinhoud
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The successful rescue of the 33 miners - trapped underground in Chile's San Jose mine for 69 days - is both a wonderful good-news story and a reminder to Europe of the country's capability, Chile's ambassador to the European Union has said.
"The result shows that in Chile and Latin America we can do things correctly. The misconception exists in some parts of Europe that we can't," Carlos Appelgren Balbontin told EUobserver during an interview on Thursday (14 October).
"What we have achieved will raise the standards of mining around the world," he added.
Plaudits and messages of goodwill have been streaming into Santiago since the last miner was winched to safety in the earlier hours of Thursday morning, in front of a media extravaganza that is reported to have beamed the rescue images to more than one billion people across the globe.
"Coming from a region where mining is of central importance … their rescue touches me so strongly," said European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek i.
Footage shows the miners emerging from the rescue capsule one by one, each wearing dark glasses to protect their eyes from the natural light.
For family members who had camped in tents nearby following the discovery of the trapped miners, 17 days after the mineshaft collapsed, the joy was evident.
Despite the American origin of the dark glasses, together with an extensive list of international support that included advice on living in confined spaces from Scandinavian psychologists, the rescue was a predominantly Chilean affair, said ambassador Appelgren.
And while Europe has not always paid sufficient attention to Latin America, the success of the event has helped to boost Chile's image, he added.
"If the EU wants to have a relevant role in the world in the world it needs Latin America," he said, referring to the realignment of global powers in the 21 Century.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera - by now a household name across the globe - will be seeking to build on this new momentum when he visits London, Paris and Berlin next week.
Back home the centre-right politician and billionaire businessman has promised to overhaul the country's mining legislation and ensure that those responsible for the accident are brought to justice.
The tough language has recently been mirrored in Hungary by the country's prime Minister, Viktor Orban i, after a spill of toxic waste from an aluminium factory caused the death of nine people.
This and the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico have prompted the EU to take a close look at its own safety legislation in a number of areas.
"The first lesson I would draw [from the Hungarian accident] is that the costs of safety security pales into insignificance compared to the loss of human life," EU environment commissioner Janez Potocnik i said after a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday.
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