Brussels and Helsinki say 72 hours. Berlin's guide is reported to say ten days.

European authorities have begun telling the public what to keep in the cupboard. This report is built from four sources: the European Commission’s own announcement, Finland’s own official guidance, a German association’s account of a new federal guide, and a news report on Poland’s distribution of a national handbook. Of those four, only Finland states why its number is the number.

Its official Suomi.fi guidance gives the same figure the European Commission uses — households should be able to cope independently “for at least 72 hours, or three days” — and then does something the Commission’s announcement does not.¹ It says what the three days are for:

The three-day period gives the authorities time to act to get the situation under control and help the most vulnerable groups.¹

The Commission’s announcement of the same 72-hour figure carries no comparable explanation.²

The European Commission’s Preparedness Union Strategy, announced on 26 March 2025, includes encouraging the public to keep essential supplies “for a minimum of 72 hours in emergencies”. The announcement carries no quantities — no litres, no calories, no list.²

Germany is reported at more than three times that. The German Armed Forces Association, writing about a new guide from the federal civil-protection office, quotes it as saying that all households should if possible be able to supply themselves for ten days, and that a stock for at least three days already helps a great deal.³ That is a secondary account rather than the guide itself, so it is carried here as a claim rather than an established fact.

The two figures are not framed the same way. The Commission gives 72 hours as a minimum.² The German guide, as quoted by the association, puts ten days as what households should manage “if possible”, while saying three days already helps a great deal.³ The pages cited here do not refer to one another.

The Finnish guidance is specific where the durations are vague. Among the home supplies it names are iodine tablets — but not for everybody. Households should hold them “if there is someone in your household in the target group for the iodine recommendation (people not over 40 years old, pregnant or breastfeeding)”.¹

The page does not dwell on it. The qualifying group is set out in a parenthesis, in the same register as the rest of the list.

Poland did not leave its guidance on a website. A national safety handbook was produced for all 17 million households in the country, published by the defence and interior ministries and the Government Security Centre.⁴

It was still arriving when its distribution was reported on 12 January 2026: “Around 4 million have already been sent out, and every household in Poland will receive one by 31 January.”⁴ What happened by that deadline is not established by the source cited here.

Helsinki and Brussels both land on 72 hours.¹² Berlin’s guide is reported to ask for ten days.³ Warsaw was still putting its handbook through the door when the distribution was last reported.⁴ The pages do not refer to one another, and only the Finnish one says what the period is for: time for the authorities to get the situation under control and help the most vulnerable groups.¹