How does the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism combat wildfires?

euronews (in English)

The heatwave in Europe raises the risk of fires, prompting the EU to activate its emergency mechanism for on-ground assistance. How does this mechanism work?

Transcript

00:00The European Union's emergency mechanism called the Civil Protection Mechanism is in top gear

00:06to respond to the rising danger of forest fires across the region.

00:10Through its member states, the Union has a fleet of 28 water-bombing aircraft and four helicopters.

00:17According to the EU Commission, men on the ground can also be mobilized.

00:21Fires are affecting the south of the continent in Croatia, Italy, Greece and neighboring countries.

00:30We also have pre-positioned 500, actually more than 500 firefighters

00:34in four southern European member states of the European Union.

00:38These are France, these are Portugal, but also Spain and Greece.

00:41They can be called upon to help the local first responders if the need arises.

00:46According to the EU Commission, member states can draw from satellite images from the Copernicus system,

00:52the European Earth Observation Program.

00:55To obtain this support, member states will have to contact the Emergency Response Coordination Center in Brussels,

01:01which operates every day of the week.

01:04The national authorities transmit their requests for assistance, which are then forwarded to the various capitals.

01:10The procedure can be very rapid.

01:16This is a crisis situation, so we try to act as quickly as possible.

01:21This can take a matter of hours, sometimes a bit longer, sometimes even just a matter of minutes.

01:26But I think the general principle is that we are trying to act as quickly as possible,

01:30since often human lives are at stake.

01:33About 600 million euros have been released by the EU to purchase 12 water bomber aircraft,

01:40which will be available by the end of the decade.

01:43The EU's civil protection mechanism was activated 10 times last year

01:48to provide assistance to member states and to countries outside the continent.

01:53By mid-summer, the mechanism had already been called upon five times.

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