00:01Commissioner, thank you very much for joining us on Euronews.
00:05You are in France at the epicenter of the fires, at devastating fires.
00:09What are you seeing around you and what is the latest that you can share with us?
00:13Well, I've met firefighters, I've met people who have been displaced, I've met authorities, militaries, everybody who has been involved
00:24in this crisis, unprecedented crisis.
00:27I went also just a few minutes ago by helicopters, I saw the magnitude of the disaster, 42,000 hectares
00:38have burned, it's four times Paris size, so it shows how important this unprecedented event, this crisis is.
00:52So, but yes, I've seen also a lot of solidarity, deputies, people, private sectors, entrepreneurs coming, helping people in need.
01:04So this is really inspiring as well.
01:07Difficult scenes, but the community coming together.
01:10I wonder, however, Commissioner, in your conversations with the authorities, you have an idea in terms of whether the intensity
01:17of the fires will calm down in the next few hours, days?
01:20Well, we have benefits from a positive forecast so far.
01:28So yesterday, it was quite calm.
01:31It doesn't mean that the fire is fixed.
01:34It is stabilized.
01:36What I saw when I was in the helicopter is that smoke's coming from the ground and the drivers just
01:44called the central to say,
01:45look, we still need to be very precise and we need to act fast because some smokes are restarted.
01:53So we are not out of the bus.
01:57So to still stay vigilant.
01:59And at this point, is this now a wake-up call about the implications of climate change?
02:05Was this a wake-up call that you've seen in the flesh yourself?
02:08We have regular wake-up call and this one is maybe the biggest since a couple of years.
02:16But, you know, climate change is not knocking at our door.
02:22It is there.
02:23It is what we are witnessing today.
02:25And we need to change as fast as the changing of the climate, as fast as the climate is changing.
02:33And so that's why we presented a whole preparedness strategy more than one year ago.
02:39That's why we issued some recommendations last March.
02:42And that's why also we are stepping up our budget with $10.7 billion that we are requesting to accompany
02:51our strategy.
02:52Because if we don't have the means to implement our strategy, we are going to lose the ground.
02:57And as you see, we are really, really in a situation of emergency.
03:04Yeah, we see it in the pictures.
03:05We see it, if I may, also in yourself.
03:07I mean, it's very hot.
03:08This is also a wake-up call to say more money is needed in the prevention.
03:12This is the new reality going forward.
03:14That's why I'm the first commissioner for preparedness, which means anticipate all kinds of hazards.
03:21Today we are focusing on wildfires, but tomorrow it can be floods.
03:26It can be a cyber attack.
03:28It can be everything.
03:29We must be prepared even for the unexpected and mainly for what is unexpected.
03:35And so we need to anticipate to change the mindset.
03:39We were prepared for wildfires.
03:41That's why we started this season by prepositioning around 800 firefighters.
03:49If you go look back in 2022, we had only 200 firefighters prepositioned in Greece.
03:58Now we have around 800 firefighters prepositioned in six countries coming from 14 member states.
04:08So, you know, they don't wear the same uniforms, they don't speak the same language, but they fight the same
04:19fires.
04:20And that is why we must absolutely develop more anticipation and more preparedness.
04:28But nonetheless, Commissioner, you also know there is political criticism and public criticism that this is a commission, perhaps, that
04:36has gone too much into the industry, defense, security, and may have relegated climate too much.
04:44Is it time for rebalancing?
04:47Do you hear, do you understand this criticism?
04:49It's not the time for criticism, for controversies, for accusation.
04:56And it is time for unity and solidarity.
04:59This is the emergency.
05:00And this is what we are seeing.
05:02When I saw the people helping each other, it is exactly reflecting what we are doing at the European level
05:08with volunteers, firefighters coming from Slovakia tomorrow and Romania, Germany.
05:15And we just learned that in the coming days, Ukrainians are coming to help France as well.
05:23So it shows the magnitude of the solidarity.
05:26And this is the only way to address this kind of big crisis.
05:32What we are facing is unprecedented.
05:34So there will be a time to draw the lessons learned for sure.
05:39And but it will come later on.
05:42Now we need to fix, to stabilize the wildfires and to save lives and to save what we can save
05:49in the forest as well.
05:52So focus on the now and the damage we've seen.
05:54It has been enormous on the land, but also the people.
05:57Commissioner, just a final question.
05:59However, we still hear in the political discourse in Europe questions about climate change, whether it's exaggerated, whether it's politicized.
06:08Some would suggest, look, this is just summer.
06:11Of course, it's hot.
06:12What do you say to those?
06:13The season has started in April.
06:17So the first country who activated the UCPM, the solidarity mechanism, was the Netherlands.
06:24So it was totally unexpected.
06:26It was once, the first time.
06:29And so we see that the season started earlier in the year, 30 of April.
06:36And we don't know yet how it will end.
06:39So we must prepare, we must to adapt.
06:44And that's why we issued a recommendation last March.
06:48We must change the way we are rebuilding, the way we are recovering, the way we live, by the way,
06:57because the climate change is now.
06:59Those who say, come on, it's summer, it's hot, fires are inevitable.
07:04What's your message?
07:04You have been there, you have seen the people, you have seen the impact.
07:07Do you have a message for them?
07:11They should come here and to see the situation.
07:14But I would like to add that it's not only France.
07:17It's in Greece right now, where we are evacuating citizens as well.
07:24In Turkey, it's part of the mechanism of solidarity.
07:30We helped Tunisia two days ago, facing wildfires as well.
07:36So it's everywhere.
07:37So we live on the same planet.
07:39So those who are skeptical should just open their eyes.
07:44Well, on that note, Commissioner, thank you very much for your time in this difficult, but as you say, also
07:50very generous hour from communities across Europe.
07:53Thank you very much.
