Connect with us

EU

Forest fires: Commission adds planes to #RescEU fleet to prepare for summer

SHARE:

Published

6 years ago

on

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

To prepare for the risk of forest fires during the upcoming summer, the EU is further reinforcing its European fleet of firefighting aircraft under the rescEU system. The EU is financing purchases by the Swedish government of two firefighting airplanes to add to the reserve. This adds up to a total of 13 airplanes and six helicopters that will be part of the rescEU fleet in 2020 and funded by the EU.

Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič said: "Forest fires can hit at any time and climate change has broadened their range across Europe. We need to be ready this summer. I thank our Swedish friends who are strongly contributing to our rescEU firefighting. I am very proud to see our European forest fire fighting fleet in place to be prepared in the best way possible for this year's fire season.”

The EU is funding seven EU member states for pooling their airplanes and helicopters in the 2020 rescEU firefighting fleet, readily deployable to other countries in times of need. The rescEU firefighting reserve consists of two firefighting airplanes from Croatia, two firefighting airplanes from Cyprus, one firefighting airplane from France, two firefighting airplanes from Greece, two firefighting airplanes from Italy, two firefighting airplanes from Spain, two firefighting airplanes and six firefighting helicopters from Sweden.

Audiovisual footage on fighting forest fires, as well as a press release and factsheet are available online.

Share this article:

Share this:
Related Topics:
EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter. Please see EU Reporter’s full Terms and Conditions of publication for more information EU Reporter embraces artificial intelligence as a tool to enhance journalistic quality, efficiency, and accessibility, while maintaining strict human editorial oversight, ethical standards, and transparency in all AI-assisted content. Please see EU Reporter’s full A.I. Policy for more information.
Advertisement

Trending