Brussels \u2013 Europe will be increasingly affected by wildfires.
\nThis
\nclimate will almost certainly become the norm, but it remains to be seen
\nwhether the EU can provide an adequate political and economic response. <\/p>\n
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, is aware of what lies ahead for the bloc of 27: “The risks surrounding us are changing.<\/span><\/span> They are becoming more frequent, more complex and more serious.<\/span><\/span> Global climate change is contributing to this instability.<\/strong>” <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This realisation, which also serves as a warning, came during the President of the European Commission’s visit to the Emergency Response Coordination Centre, the EU\u2019s crisis management hub. And there is no doubt that the EU is already in the midst of a crisis: “This summer the forest fire season began exceptionally early, at the end of April, and put national services under severe strain,<\/strong>\u201d recalls von der Leyen. The EU alone demonstrates that the situation is coming to a head: \u201cSince April, the Civil Protection Mechanism<\/a> has been activated ten times for forest fires in eight different countries, sometimes with several fires burning simultaneously.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \nLooking “All over the world we are seeing higher temperatures and erratic rainfall,<\/strong>” she warns. “For the emergency services this is not an abstract warning about the future, but is already changing the emergencies they face today.<\/strong>” Yet the EU\u2019s current situation is characterised by inadequacy and decisions that are heading in the opposite direction.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n The French MEP Anthony Smith<\/strong> (La France Insoumise\/laSinistra) points out<\/a> that the EU \u201cdoes not have sufficient industrial capacity\u201d to renew and expand its fleet of Canadair firefighting aircraft, and that in light of \u201cfires that are becoming more intense, more frequent and more widespread,\u201d it would be appropriate to take action to address the problem, which is more serious than anticipated. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Funds are needed to purchase and manufacture firefighting aircraft, and all of them have to be found. The European Commission has decided to acquire 12 aircraft of its own<\/a> to avoid asking national governments every time and to be better prepared and more independent in responding to the crisis. But that is not enough. This is why the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, is calling on Smith to persuade his fellow MEPs to work together: \u201cIn the context of negotiations on the next multiannual financial framework (MFF 2028\u20132034), the European Parliament\u2019s support will be essential to ensure the effective implementation of activities aimed at building a more resilient and better-prepared Europe.\u201d It is a pity that budget negotiations are practically at a standstill, partly because some countries want to spend as little as possible by cutting across all areas of expenditure<\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In short, the EU risks not having the money to prevent and tackle future wildfires. This is partly because the European Commission\u2019s 12 Canadair aircraft are not due to be delivered until 2027, and in the view of the “frugal” countries, this alone is enough to justify cutting spending.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Commission President visits the emergency management centre: \u201cSummer 2026 has put countries under severe strain; it is more than just a warning for the future.\u201d Lahbib calls on Parliament for help with the common budget, where Member States are only seeking cuts<\/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":[35503],"tags":[29807,26025,31262,26050,28513,26949,33394],"class_list":["post-463532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ambiente","tag-climate-en","tag-gestione-crisi-en","tag-incendi-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463532","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=463532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463533,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463532\/revisions\/463533"}],"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=463532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nahead, von der Leyen believes we must prepare for a new reality, characterised
\nby climate change that can no longer be denied. <\/p>\n