{"id":464915,"date":"2026-09-15T10:58:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/15\/popolari-e-socialisti-invocano-un-piano-industriale-per-aerei-anti-incendio-prodotti-in-europa\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T11:50:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T09:50:51","slug":"epp-and-socialists-call-for-an-industrial-plan-for-europe-made-firefighting-aircraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/15\/epp-and-socialists-call-for-an-industrial-plan-for-europe-made-firefighting-aircraft\/","title":{"rendered":"EPP and Socialists call for an industrial plan for Europe\u2011made firefighting aircraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The European Union, understood as the collective body comprising national governments and EU institutions, should devise an entirely new industrial strategy to manufacture Canadair aircraft within the EU<\/strong>, enabling it to respond decisively and effectively to summer wildfires whilst remaining competitive and safeguarding both the environment and the economy. The debate on the scorching summer of 2026<\/strong>, characterised by fires<\/a> and prolonged drought,<\/a> has seen the European Parliament put forward a further proposal for the 12-Star agenda, on a topic seen as beneficial to both security and growth. <\/p>\n

“The civil protection mechanism should be expanded, using equipment manufactured in Europe,<\/strong>” argues Pascal Arimont<\/strong> (EPP)<\/strong>, explaining what he considers to be one of the lessons to be learnt from the summer that is drawing to a close. By proceeding in this way, \u201cwe will also be able to increase our security\u201d through contracts that do not result in risky dependencies. The Socialists also welcome the idea: \u201can industrial plan is needed to produce Canadair aircraft in Europe,<\/strong>\u201d Christofe Clergeau<\/strong> (S&D) <\/strong>stresses, highlighting a political convergence between the EPP and the Socialists \u2013 the two main parliamentary groups \u2013 which could serve as a potential political mandate for the European Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Debate in the European Parliament chamber on wildfires and drought in the summer of 2026 [Strasbourg, 15 September 2026]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the only significant moment in a debate that fails to honour the fire victims, the firefighters battling the flames, and the farmers affected by a summer already consigned to oblivion: the chamber is half\u2011empty, uninterested, and the debate soon derails.<\/span><\/p>\n

The League MEP, Silvia Sardone<\/strong>, spoke out to criticise the Green Deal and the Socialists who support it. A speech that earned her a blue card<\/a> and criticism for failing to mention the main topic of the debate. The Vice-President of the European Parliament, Antonella Sberna<\/strong> (FdI), in a burst of patriotic pride, took the opportunity to stress how the European solidarity shown in the management of the wildfires follows in the footsteps of Giuseppe Zamberletti, a member of parliament, senator and minister for the Christian Democrats, and the father of the Italian Civil Protection Agency.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Emma Fourreau<\/strong> (The Left) launched a direct attack on the European Commission and “the system”. \u201cCommissioner Lahbib, what further lessons do you need after the summers of 2023, 2024 and 2025? You are liberals, you are capitalists, you are in power, and you have drawn your conclusions: to continue with your policies and carry on as before.\u201d The Five Star Movement (The Left) also presses this point, with Valentina Palmisano<\/strong> emphasising that \u201cthe von der Leyen Commission and the Meloni government are working together to weaken, postpone or scrap all those measures designed to tackle the climate crisis\u201d and that this \u201cis a short-sighted strategy that puts citizens\u2019 safety and future at risk\u201d because \u201cthe fight against climate change is a social, economic and health priority\u201d.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Liberals and Greens, instead, are waiting for the Commission president and turning their attention to tomorrow\u2019s (16 September) State of the Union speech<\/a>: \u201cVon der Leyen should put on the table a plan to tackle climate change, complete with funding, call for a summit of leaders \u2013 something she should already have done \u2013 and set a specific date for phasing out fossil fuels,\u201d argues Lena Schilling<\/strong> (Greens). \u201cIt is important that von der Leyen puts this issue on her daily agenda,\u201d urges Gregory Allione (Renew Europe, RE).<\/span> <\/p>\n

The clash with the far-right groups begins from the Liberal benches: \u201cDenying climate change will not improve our future,<\/strong>\u201d said Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy<\/strong> (RE). In a half-empty and suddenly rowdy Chamber, <\/strong><\/span>Annalisa Corrado<\/strong> (S&D) attempts to offer a collective self-critique: \u201cOver the course of this year, 180 billion euros have gone up in smoke \u2013 equivalent to 1 per cent of our GDP. It is our fault<\/strong>, as we are not doing enough.\u201d This is an opportunity for Isabelle Le Callennec (EPP)<\/strong> to reiterate her call to \u201cproduce in Europe\u201d what is needed to combat heatwaves and wildfires and, in this regard, to highlight the importance of \u201chaving the right allocation in the next multiannual financial framework\u201d (MFF 2028\u20132034).<\/p>\n

 “Manufacturing Canadair aircraft in Europe is something I have spoken about,” recalls the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib<\/strong>, who adds, however: “This is a reaction after the event, and I want to be sure that there is a prevention strategy in place.” That is why, she announces, \u201cwe will present a strategy for climate resilience in the autumn.\u201d The issue of resources remains central: \u201cThe next multiannual budget will be of crucial importance for funding prevention measures,” Lahbib stressed, warning that \u201cwithout prevention, the costs of interventions will rise<\/strong>. I am counting on the support of this House.\u201d However, she faces opposition from Member States ready for substantial and widespread cuts<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the half-empty chamber of the European Parliament, the EPP and S&D groups joined forces in support of a strategy for competitiveness and security designed to tackle the problem of scorching summers and safeguard growth and the economy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":464903,"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":[29807,26025,25755,26949,26708,33394],"class_list":["post-464915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ambiente","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-incendi-en","tag-session-plenary-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464915","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=464915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464916,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464915\/revisions\/464916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}