European solidarity is at work, through the EU civil protection mechanism, to help Italy fight the forest fires devastating the north of the country. In response to the request for assistance lodged by the Italian authorities with the European Commission on Sunday 29 October, Croatia immediately offered two specialised Canadair planes which have been operating in the affected areas in northern Italy since Sunday evening.
The EU’s Copernicus satellite system has also been activated to provide very precise mapping services so that local civil protection authorities can pinpoint the seats of the fires.
In a press release, European Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Commissioner Christos Stylianides expressed the solidarity of the EU with the victims of the forest fires and thanked Croatia for its swift response to the call for assistance. The commissioner also tweeted that Europe stood “with the victims and all affected by the deadly storms in northern and central #Europe”.
The Commission’s 24/7 Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is closely monitoring the situation in Italy and in northern and central Europe to match offers of assistance with requests for help.
Discussion is on-going on enhancing the EU’s civil protection system in order to be better able to respond to the increasingly frequent natural disasters in Europe. The commissioner is preparing proposals for improving the collective response, which he is expected to present in less than a month’s time, to make the system more responsive, “better prepared and more resilient”, he says, in line with the task set him by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (see EUROPE 11893 and 11888). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)