Adam LeBor, Central Europe Correspondent for The Times, says that Europe must do more to help the stricken states of the Balkans, which has been badly affected by the Danube floods.

Why is the response to the floods being criticised?

These countries don't have any proper means of dealing with large-scale disasters. They are still post-communist countries and are not really set up as much as the West would be for dealing with natural catastrophes. The infrastructure is poor, the roads, the trains, the general machinery of the state is nowhere near as efficient.

Serbia was at war for years and sanctions took massive toll on the people and the economy. Romania and Bulgaria are two of the least developed states in Europe.

Why have other regions along the Danube escaped?

Austria, Germany and to some extent Hungary would have been better able to cope but they have escaped the flooding because the Danube is quite narrow in these regions. In Vienna it is like a canal but by the time the river reaches the Serbia-Romania border it's huge - its several kilometres wide and is a very powerful force of nature.

There hasn't been the investment. These are poor countries, and they simply don't have the funds to set up the kind of response teams one would expect in the West.

There is also a kind of fatalism in this part of world: people are saying 'these things are sent to try us'. After years of being ruled by different empires and dictators, people are more passive. They don't have the instant indignant response you would associate with natural disasters in the West.

That said, the governments have been making considerable efforts in their emergency response. The people have not stood by and done nothing. They are trying to reinforce riverbanks, build up sandbags, mend dykes. Police, soldiers and volunteers are all doing their bit but they don't have the technology or the machinery.

What is the likely long-term damage once the water has dried up?

These are agricultural societies so the loss of farmland will be a catastrophe for the individual farmers. It's unclear just how much land has been flooded in an attempt to protect the downstream towns, but the crops will have been completely destroyed.

Judging by the latest predictions, the waters will subside in the next few days. But we are now looking at a massive clean-up operation which will take months. Several villages on the river had yet to return to normal from the devastation caused by last summer's floods.

Is this just a problem for the Balkans?

There has always been a temptation in western Europe to look at the Balkans with a shrug: the area is in a big mess and has generally been left to its own devices to sort out its many problems. But the Danube is a mighty European river which starts in the Black Forest in Germany and everybody has a responsibility for this.

The Balkans are now becoming a real issue for the European Union. Romania and Bulgaria are supposed to be joining the EU next year and Serbia is holding out hope to join some time in the future.

If European integration is to mean anything then it is the responsibility of all of the European countries to come to the assistance of the Balkans now. It is also in their interests: the more things like this are allowed to happen unchecked, the more people will leave the area and settle in the West. Many countries in western Europe have made it clear that they are not entirely happy with that.

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