Wildfires: EU response 2023 – guide

The fire risk in Europe and the rest of the world is expected to continue increasing due to climate change and this wildfire season will likely be increasingly characterised by massive fires that cost lives and burn areas that take longer to fully recover. In 2022 alone, wildfires burnt an area about the size of Montenegro, and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism was activated 10 times to mobilise cross-border firefighting assistance. To be better prepared to support Member States this wildfire season, the EU has doubled its firefighting air capacity.

What are the EU’s firefighting assets for 2023

• The rescEU reserve comprises 28 firefighting aircraft. This includes 24 firefighting airplanes and 4 helicopters from the following 10 Member States:
  • Croatia: 2 medium scooping airplanes
  • Cyprus: 2 light planes
  • Czechia: 2 helicopters
  • France: 2 medium scooping airplanes and 1 helicopter
  • Germany: 2 light planes
  • Greece: 2 medium scooping airplanes, 2 light planes and 1 helicopter
  • Italy: 2 medium scooping airplanes and 2 light planes
  • Portugal: 2 light planes
  • Spain: 2 medium scooping airplanes
  • Sweden: 4 light planes

• Ground firefighting teams of more than 440 firefighters will be prepositioned in France (approx. 170), Greece (approx. 200) and Portugal (approx. 60) from the following 11 Member States:
  • Austria: 40 firefighters
  • Bulgaria: 32 firefighters
  • Finland: 48 firefighters
  • France: 40 firefighters
  • Germany: 40 firefighters
  • Latvia: 20 firefighters
  • Malta: 20 firefighters
  • Poland: 30 firefighters
  • Romania: 80 firefighters
  • Slovakia: 20 firefighters
  • Slovenia: 20 firefighters

•    This resource sharing programme is coordinated under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The EU co-finances the travel, accommodation, subsistence, and some part of the operations costs of European firefighters to France, Greece and Portugal and back to the countries of origin.

• The rescEU reserve complements and enhances the assets that were available so far from the European Civil Protection Pool (ECPP):
  • 4 Canadair planes (2 from France and 2 from Greece)
  • 5 ground forest firefighting teams without vehicles modules from Greece (1), Spain (1), France (2), and Portugal (1)
  • ground forest firefighting teams 7 with vehicles modules from Bulgaria (1), France (2), Poland (3), and Portugal (1)
  • two forest firefighting advisory/assessment teams from Spain. 

How is the rescEU firefighting fleet funded?

The EU funds 75% of the stand-by costs of assets (i.e. aircraft) and personnel during the period of the agreement (wildfire season).

100 % of transport costs for every deployment and 75 % of operational costs are covered by the EU in case of deployment inside Europe; 100% outside Europe

What was the EU’s response to wildfires in previous years?

In the 2022 wildfire season, the EU’s rescEU firefighting fleet was made up of 13 aircraft, including 12 airplanes and 1 helicopter. Positioned throughout the EU in Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden. France and Greece had also each registered 4 more Canadair in the European Civil Protection Pool.

During the year, the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) received 11 requests for assistance for wildfires, in some cases simultaneously, from Albania, Czechia, France, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia. There were 33 planes, 8 helicopters and over 1500 firefighters on the ground via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to help overwhelmed national responders put down massive wildfires

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) produced 328 maps of areas affected by wildfires across the world in 2022.

In 2021, rescEU firefighting planes and helicopters supported fire response in Cyprus (3 to 5 July), Italy (25 to 30 July), Turkey (1 to 24 Aug), Greece (3 to 30 August) and Austria (29 Oct to 5 Nov). In 2019, the EU sent rescEU firefighting airplanes to Greece’s Evia island (13 August).

What other tools does the EU have in place for wildfire prevention, preparedness, and monitoring?

• The EU’s 24/7 Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) monitors fires of concern and maintains close contact with the authorities of the affected country.
• The ERCC Wildfires Support Team with experts from EU Member States, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism Participating States, ERCC staff as well as scientific experts from the European Natural Hazard Scientific Partnership (“ARISTOTLE”) consortium will be set up to from 19 June to 14 September.
• The European Civil Protection Pool (ECPP) brings together firefighting resources from Member States and Participating States, ready for deployment at short notice. These resources are pre-committed to the ECPP by Member States and Participating States and certified by the European Commission.
• In 2021, the Commission initiated the Wildfire Prevention Action Plan. As a tangible deliverable of this plan, a Wildfire Peer Review Assessment Framework (PRAF) is has now been made available. The PRAF supports wildfire risk management capacity building and good practices exchange among European countries. The PRAF will facilitate peer reviews of wildfire risk management systems within the framework of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). This new tool will help countries assess their capacity to prevent wildfires from starting and their preparedness to cope with them. Member States and Participating States are invited to volunteer for a wildfire management peer review or to use this tool for a self-review, at national and/or regional level.
• National and European monitoring services and tools such as the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) provide updated and reliable information on wildland fires in Europe. EFFIS provides fire danger forecast (short and long-term) as well as near-real time information on active fires and burnt areas.

Regular meetings will be held with EU Member and Participating States to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism during the season to exchange information on their state of preparedness and fire risks.

• The EU’s Copernicus emergency satellite mapping service can be activated to map wildfires.

rescEU

Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC)

EU Civil Protection Mechanism

Source: European Commission