00:00Europe is burning again, and this time, the EU says, is ready like never before.
00:06But is that true, and are the EU's measures what Europe really needs to combat wildfires?
00:12We have regular wake-up calls, and this one is maybe the biggest since a couple of years.
00:19Portugal, France and Greece activated the EU's civil protection mechanism this July
00:23as wildfires tore through their territory.
00:25France utilized four rescue planes from Sweden and Cyprus.
00:30Portugal utilized 118 firefighters and 45 vehicles from Spain,
00:35plus three rescue planes from Italy and Spain.
00:38As of July 29, 2026, the EU has recorded 1,407 wildfires burning 434,976 hectares
00:48and releasing an estimated 17.98 million tons of CO2,
00:53according to the European forest fire information system.
00:57That's below the 2025's record season, but still well above the 20-year average.
01:03And forecasters say the danger isn't over.
01:06EFIS puts Western Europe at the highest fire risk level
01:10with extreme conditions across Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece.
01:15So, this summer, the Commission says it deployed its largest ever wildfire response
01:21with 777 firefighters from 14 countries, repositioned in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal,
01:2922 firefighting planes and five helicopters ready before the fires even started.
01:34This is the highest level of participation since the program began in 2022.
01:39And there's also EFIS, the satellite system that forecasts fire risk up to 10 days ahead
01:45and RESCU, the EU's emergency reserve of aircrafts,
01:49which is sent in when national firefighters are overwhelmed.
01:52The EU is also building permanent capacity for next time.
01:56A new regional firefighting station opens in Cyprus this year with room for six aircrafts.
02:01Think of it as a ladder, national response first, EU pooled support second, and RESCU as a last resort.
02:10The EU funds and coordinates, but on the ground, each country still leads its own response.
02:17Behind the emergency response sits a slower policy shift to the EU's Forest Strategy 2030,
02:22which is pushing prevention, resilience and 3 billion new trees by 2030.
02:27But Brussels cannot rewrite national forest law or bring more firefighters on its own.
02:32What it can do is fund prevention, share risk data and move help across borders fast before a fire becomes
02:40a disaster.
02:40And as heat waves arrive earlier and hit harder each year,
02:44that share response may be the only thing stopping another record-breaking summer of fires.
02:49For the full story, read our In-Depth Explainer on euronews.com.
02:57Thank you for staying here.
02:57Thank you for doing a parenting weekend of archaeological fires.
02:57Asleri's
02:57hormone
02:57In-Depth
02:57Asleri
02:57Asleri
Commentaires