{"id":459219,"date":"2026-07-08T14:02:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/08\/allarme-incendi-dallue-linvito-a-prepararsi-a-unestate-ad-alto-rischio\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T14:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:26:42","slug":"fire-alert-eu-urges-people-to-prepare-for-a-high-risk-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/08\/fire-alert-eu-urges-people-to-prepare-for-a-high-risk-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire alert: EU urges people to prepare for a high-risk summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

from our correspondent in Strasbourg<\/em> – The EU is bracing itself for a summer marked by forest fire emergencies<\/strong>. A warning has come from Strasbourg regarding a situation that has now become structural and is likely to force Europeans to contend with wildfires once again. \u201c2025 was a record year for the number of times the EU Civil Protection<\/a> mechanism was activated, and it is likely that the situation could repeat itself this year<\/strong>\u201d, admits Thomas Byrne<\/strong>, Minister for European Affairs of Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU<\/a>. He sounds the alarm during the debate on heatwaves and the risk of wildfires. He stresses the link between the risk of wildfires and ongoing climate change: \u201cWe are the region of the world that is warming the most of all<\/strong>, and with worrying trends,\u201d which see Europe \u201cmore exposed to droughts, heatwaves, floods, and extreme weather events.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve already set a record this year; we\u2019ve already had heatwaves and the fire season has started earlier than usual, with two calls for assistance<\/strong> at the end of April and in May,” says the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib<\/strong>. Meanwhile, Portugal and France have also requested assistance<\/a> from the EU emergency response centre, further evidence of an already complicated situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to risk management, \u201cMember States remain primarily responsible\u201d, Lahbib emphasises, but she assures that the Commission is ready to \u201cprovide assistance and detect fires.\u201d She also announced that, in the immediate future, she is working to \u201cdevelop an information portal\u201d to aid prevention, mitigation, and awareness-raising.<\/p>\n

 The debate provides an opportunity for the Socialists to point the finger at the People\u2019s Party (EPP): \u201cShe reminds the EPP and the false patriots of the far right that every attack on the Green Deal, every attempt to weaken the fight against deforestation, puts lives at risk,\u201d says the chair of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, Iratxe Garc\u00eda P\u00e9rez, who argues that \u201cevery time the climate emergency is trivialised, it fuels inaction. And inaction kills\u201d. It is an attack and a new criticism of the anti-sustainability alliances chosen by Europe\u2019s leading centre-right party<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The debate on this issue is entirely Spanish. Speaking on behalf of the EPP is Carmen Crespo D\u00edaz<\/strong>, who attacks the Socialists and Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government: \u201cWe have missed an opportunity with the NextGenerationEU funds, with countries such as mine failing to take advantage of these resources for prevention and fireproof measures.\u201d On the contrary, \u201cthe procurement of fire-fighting aircraft has been scaled back in 2023,\u201d she adds, in open criticism of the Spanish Socialist government. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plenary debate on heatwaves has seen warnings from the Commission and the Irish Presidency: \u201cIt is likely that last year\u2019s events will be repeated; Europe is more vulnerable to such phenomena.\u201d Clashes between the EPP and S&D over the Green Deal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":378470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25712,25681],"tags":[26050,25755,30861,29736,26949,26708,34751,33394],"class_list":["post-459219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-politics","tag-climate-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-hadja-lahbib-en-2","tag-broth-en","tag-incendi-en","tag-session-plenary-en","tag-thomas-byrne","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459220,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459219\/revisions\/459220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}