Firefighting planes and helicopters

The Council adopted its position on a draft law that extends the deadline that will allow the Commission to provide financing of firefighting planes and helicopters to support member states in fighting forest fires.

Forest fires caused by drought and heat affect the whole EU. With today's decision, we want to secure EU funding for firefighting aeroplanes and helicopters.

Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Swedish Minister for Civil Defence

rescEU

In 2019, rescEU was created as a reserve of European civil protection capacities which would step in to help member states protect citizens when disasters – such as wildfires – occur. These capacities will include a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters.

To ensure a smooth transition until the full availability of the rescEU firefighting fleet, the Commission can, for a transitional period until 31 December 2024, provide financing to member states to ensure rapid access to their national aerial firefighting capacities.

Because the purchase of highly-specialised aircrafts cannot be completed before the end of 2024, the transition period to lease forest fire planes and helicopters has to be extended until end of 2027.

Quick adoption

The Council is concerned about the increasing wildfire risk and the development that wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. This requires the swift prolongation of the transition period – to ensure that sufficient aerial firefighting capacities will continue to be rapidly available also beyond the 2024 wildfire season. Therefore the Council decided to align its position with that of the Commission’s and calls on the European Parliament to cooperate in view of a swift adoption.

Background

The wildfire risk in the EU is growing and wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense. In 2022, the number of wildfires in the EU bigger than 30 hectares totalled 2 707. 786 316 hectares (over three times the size of Luxembourg) of land were burnt. This amount has significantly increased compared to the year before (416 413 hectares).

Wildfires affect not only the Mediterranean region but are a EU-wide problem. In 2022, 20 member states have recorded more burned areas than their average over previous years.

In 2022 alone, the wildfires have led to estimated economic losses above EUR 2 billion. Approximately 35% of the burnt areas in 2022 are included in Natura 2000 sites.

Next steps

On the basis of today’s negotiating mandate, the Council can start talks with the European Parliament – once it has adopted its own position – to agree on a final text.