Today, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič met with Canada’s Minister of Trade Mary Ng to discuss the strengthening of EU and Canada cooperation on crisis response efforts. This is part of the EU and Canada’s efforts announced at the Strategic Partnership Summit on disaster response and emergency management last year.
At the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre, they discussed the recent agreement signed between interested EU Member States and the Canadian Commercial Corporation to start the production of 12 new amphibious firefighting planes to become the backbone of the permanent rescEU fleet. The planes, financed by the European Commission, will be hosted by Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
10 additional firefighting planes are being purchased by Member States directly to reinforce their national fleets. It is expected that the first batch of the new planes will be delivered at the end of 2027. The EU has, in turn, dispatched firefighting teams to Canada most recently in 2023 to help battle wildfires.
Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said: “The danger of wildfires is ever-present in Europe. With forest blazes in Greece stretching into October, we can no longer speak of a “wildfire season”. We have to be ready to combat the next fire at any time of the year. Strengthening our rescEU firefighting fleet is strengthening European preparedness to respond to the repercussions of the climate crisis. We are all vulnerable to impacts of climate change – and we must all work together to address this vulnerability. I would like to thank Canada for the constructive cooperation in this matter.”
Background
Wildfires have recently become a pan-European concern, and the fire risk is expected to further increase due to climate change.
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism coordinates pan-European assistance and ensures that all EU Member States and participating states to the Mechanism receive timely information in times of crises and emergencies.
Since 2019, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been progressively reinforced with the rescEU fleet, a European reserve that includes firefighting planes and helicopters and is 100% financed by the EU.
The EU funds will enable the acquisition of a total of 12 new firefighting planes, which will be distributed among 6 EU Member States (Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain), and a number of helicopters. These will become the “permanent rescEU fleet”. The first airplanes are expected to be delivered in 2027. A first batch of helicopters are expected to arrive in 2026.
