The European Union (EU) wants to create an ever-increasing and frequent firefighting fleet, having called on firefighters and emergency personnel to lead this work, today the President of the European Commission in Strasbourg announced.
© Lusa
16/09/2026
by
Lusa
The chosen fire team, explained Ursula von der Leyen, in its sixth address on the EU State, will examine “all aspects of preparedness and prevention” and make proposals, “including for a future European firefighting fleet”.
Alongside the forest fires – which, she said, destroyed 660,000 hectares this year and caused the loss of about 12 million tonnes of crops – the leader of the Community executive addressed the problem of global warming and the heat waves that hit Europe this summer.
“ These were the warmest summer months of all time, but probably the coolest of the years to come,” he recalled, stressing that “Europe is warming twice the global pace.”.
In this sense, he called for the strengthening of preparation, announcing “a new framework for climate resilience”, to be presented in October.
Ursula von der Leyen also said that soon a plan for the heat waves and an initiative on water will be presented.