There is no time to lose: the EU must act now and boost its civil protection capabilities to prepare for and better respond to the 2023 forest fire season, warned Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič at the opening of a roundtable discussion organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the Czech Presidency of the EU Council in Brussels on Monday 5 September.
The aim was to “launch the debate” on this subject with the Ministers or State Secretaries of the member countries of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and the Directors of Civil Protection of the Member States.
The forest fire season, which was particularly devastating this summer despite the pre-positioning of RescEU capabilities in Greece in June (see EUROPE 12745/2), further convinced Mr Lenarčič of “the need to act immediately” and “to do more, at national but also at European level”, to prevent and respond more quickly to what is “not an isolated episode, but part of an alarming trend”. He was heard.
According to a press release issued on Monday evening by the European Commission’s Civil Protection services, Member States and the Commission have reached a broad consensus on four lines of action, namely:
- accelerate the establishment of the new permanent fleet of aerial fire-fighting capabilities from RescEU - the EU’s equipment pool - by considering an early purchase of helicopters;
- expand the existing European seasonal safety net of fire-fighting aircraft by funding the inclusion of additional helicopters and light aircraft, particularly in central and northern Europe, from summer 2023;
- strengthen the seasonal pre-positioning of ground teams at critical forest fire locations;
- operationalise an action plan for fire prevention and preparedness.
More money from the budget required. These actions are conditional on the provision of additional EU budgetary resources. The European Commission has invited countries interested in hosting additional RescEU capabilities or prepositioning ground teams to inform it of their intentions before the end of September 2022.
Pointing out that a total of almost 800,000 hectares were burnt this summer in France, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and the region between Slovenia and Italy after a devastating season in 2021 in Greece and Turkey, the commissioner noted in his opening address that the RescEU fleet of airborne assets is only “a safety net”.
While 11 requests for assistance were submitted this summer, some countries did not use the EU’s civil protection mechanism because they knew there would not be enough resources available, Lenarčič said.
Last year, also in September, the European Commissioner made the same plea in the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, calling for massive investment in climate-related disaster prevention and civil protection resources to deal with forest fires (see EUROPE 12788/16). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)