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.
More specifically, 556 firefighters from 12 countries will be strategically prepositioned across key locations in Europe this summer, such as France, Greece, Portugal, and Spain, ready to help local fire brigades. This proactive measure enhances Europe's readiness to combat wildfires and mitigate their devastating impact on lives, homes, and the environment, and underscores the robustness of EU solidarity in addressing such crises.
The EU has also assembled a dedicated rescEU fleet of firefighting aircraft for this summer, consisting of 28 airplanes and 4 helicopters stationed in 10 Member States. More specifically the fleet will include:
- Four medium amphibious airplanes, two light planes and one helicopter from Greece
- Two medium amphibious airplanes from Croatia
- Two medium amphibious airplanes and two light planes from Italy
- Two medium amphibious airplanes from Spain
- Four medium amphibious airplanes and one helicopter from France
- Four light planes from SwedenTwo light planes from Portugal
- Two helicopters from Czechia
- Two light planes from Cyprus
- Two light planes from Germany
The Commission has also allocated a total of 600 million euros to facilitate the acquisition of 12 new firefighting planes in the future, which will be distributed among six EU member states. In addition, several helicopters will also be financed in the future by the EU to reinforce the EU aerial firefighting fleet.
The prepositioning of firefighters and the acquisition of additional firefighting aircraft underscore the EU's commitment to bolstering its capacity to respond effectively to wildfires, particularly during the upcoming summer months.
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