As Europe is preparing for the approaching wildfire season, the EU is taking significant steps to bolster firefighting efforts and safeguard communities, by pre-positioning firefighters and assembling a fleet of firefighting aircraft. First, 556 firefighters from 12 countries will be strategically prepositioned across key locations in Europe this summer, such as France, Greece, Portugal, and Spain, ready […]
Firefighting: EU earmarks €600m to reinforce EU rescue operations
The Commission is financing the purchase of new firefighting planes to increase the aerial firefighting capacity of rescEU, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism’s strategic crisis response reserve. €600 million in EU funds will be used to purchase 12 new planes, which will be hosted across 6 EU Member States: Croatia, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and […]
EU support to member states to fight forest fires
The Council adopted its position on a draft law that extends the deadline that will allow the Commission to provide financing of firefighting planes and helicopters to support member states in fighting forest fires. rescEU In 2019, rescEU was created as a reserve of European civil protection capacities which would step in to help member […]
How the EU is preparing for the 2023 wildfire season
2022 was the second worst wildfire season in Europe and the first months of this year are following the same trajectory. We have already seen many winter and spring fires across the continent – from southern Ireland to the Balkan region. In response to this situation, the EU is scaling up its firefighting efforts with a […]
EU doubles rescEU firefighting fleet for summer 2023
Following up on President von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech in September last year, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič announced today the doubling of the rescEU aerial firefighting fleet for this year’s wildfire season while speaking at the 10th anniversary of the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre. rescEU firefighting fleet for 2023 […]
EU opens new rescEU energy hub in Poland
Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, and the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, have visited and opened the new rescEU energy hub in Poland that will act as a logistical centre for delivering emergency energy assistance to Ukraine. The EU has awarded €114 million to Poland for purchasing generators to be part of this rescEU energy reserve. […]
European Forest Fire report: Three of the worst fire seasons on record took place in the last six years
Today, the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) published the latest edition of its Annual Report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in 2021. It concludes that last year’s fire season was the second worst in the EU territory in terms of burnt area (since records began in 2006), after 2017 when over […]
Forest fires: EU sends assistance to combat fires at the Czech-German border
The European Union has swiftly mobilised two firefighting airplanes and two helicopters to Czechia where a large forest fire is burning in the north of the country. Following yesterday’s request for assistance, Poland and Slovakia are each operating one helicopter in the country. The EU is mobilising 2 firefighting planes from its rescEU fleet that […]
Forest fires: EU mobilises its firefighting fleet to help Portugal
Portugal has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to request emergency assistance for the current wildfires in the central part of the country. In an immediate response, the European Commission has mobilised this morning 2 Canadair firefighting airplanes from its rescEU fleet positioned in Spain. The planes are supporting Portuguese first responders in the affected […]