The European Commission was quick to respond to the request from Portugal, where firefighters are currently tackling huge forest fires that have claimed the lives of over 60 people, for the European civil protection mechanism to be triggered.
“We are in a position to be able to respond to all (of Portugal’s) requests”, said a Commission spokesperson on Monday 19 June. By the middle of the day, seven firefighting aircraft from Spain, France and Italy and over 100 Spanish firefighters had been deployed to help Portugal. In addition, the emergency management services of the Copernicus programme were about to send a dozen maps to the authorities to help them locate the seats of the fires and assess the extent of the damage.
In the European Parliament, several Portuguese MEPs from the GUE/NGL Group called for the expenditure involved in making good the damage caused by the fires not to be included in the calculation of Portugal’s public deficit, with the excessive deficit procedure against the country having just been halted (see EUROPE 11810). In general, this kind of spending ('one-off measures') in response to natural disasters can be discounted, said another Commission spokesperson.
In Luxembourg, European environment ministers began their Council meeting with a minute’s silence for victims in Portugal and the United Kingdom, where another act described as terrorist has been carried out. Portuguese minister José Mendes expressed his “gratitude at the practical assistance provided by a number of member states and the Commission” through the EU civil protection mechanism. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Aminata Niang)