Forest fire season: Lessons learnt
Wildfires: EU Civil Protection preparation for 2023 kicks off in Lisbon on 10 January.
Today, the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, joined the Portuguese Minister of Home Affairs, José Luís Carneiro, for the opening session of the European Civil Protection Mechanism workshop on ‘Lessons identified from the 2022 wildfire season’.
“Every wildfire season brings with it new lessons, new discoveries, and new opportunities to strengthen our common work. The 2022 season broke many records across Europe, showing us three lessons we should draw from: we need to step up wildfire prevention, improve our preparedness and boost our response capacities across Europe. We know more wildfires are expected this summer and the EU is taking concrete measures to boost our capacities ahead of this year’s season. Right now, we are building out our existing reserve of firefighting planes. As President von der Leyen confirmed in September, the EU will double its firefighting capacity before the 2023 wildfire season. We will get an additional ten light amphibious aircrafts and three helicopters to add to this fleet”, said Commissioner Lenarčič.
The opening of the seminar was also attended (by videoconference) by the Swedish Minister for Civil Defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, representing the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The panel that followed included, among others, Greece's Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Stylianides, and (by videoconference) the Interior Ministers of Czech Republic, Vít Rakušan, Spain, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and France, Gérald Darmanin.
The 2022 fire season brought the highest number of fires since 2006. Fires destroyed almost 790,000 hectares of land across the European continent, almost 70% more than in 2021. These fires resulted in a very large burnt area across Europe including countries that traditionally do not face such challenges, such as Czechia, Germany, and Slovenia. In total, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism was activated 11 times, mobilising 33 planes, 8 helicopters, around 350 firefighters and other types of support for wildfires.
During his visit to Portugal, Commissioner Lenarčič also discussed humanitarian issues with the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, João GomesCravinho; the Secretary of State for Cooperation, Francisco André; and the Vice-President of Instituto Camões, Cristina Moniz.
