The European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, met the Canadian Minister for Trade, Mary Ng, on Friday 4 October, to strengthen cooperation between the EU and Canada in the event of a crisis.
The recent agreement signed between interested EU Member States and the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) to launch the production of 12 new amphibious fire-fighting aircraft was also discussed. Financed by the European Commission, these aircraft will form part of the permanent rescEU fleet and will be hosted by Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
In addition, the Member States will reinforce their national fleets by purchasing 10 more fire-fighting aircraft, the first batch of which is expected to arrive by the end of 2027. Janez Lenarčič pointed out that the time when forest fires were limited to the summer season is over, with cases of fires in October in Greece.
These steps were announced in 2023 at the EU-Canada Strategic Partnership Summit on disaster response and emergency management. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)