Debate: Towards a more disaster-resilient EU - protecting people from extreme heatwaves, floods and forest fires
Date: TUESDAY, 12 SEPTEMBER 2023
Speaker: Janez Lenarčič
Language: EN

Let me open with the words of Dimitris Hajifotis, a victim of the wildfires sweeping Greece this summer. I quote: ‘My life is now stopped. Everything is taken by the fire.’ The wildfire in the Evros region of Greece has been the largest recorded in Europe ever. Burning an area of almost 100 000 hectares. Meanwhile, in the same country – Greece – a week ago, three years’ worth of rain fell within two days. In August, two thirds of Slovenia was underwater. In May, flooding in Italy prompted 900 landslides last summer. Nearly 62 000 Europeans died from record-breaking heat. And I am sure you can continue this grim list yourselves. The horrific regularity, intensity and simultaneity of these emergencies was unusual just a few years ago. Now it is all too familiar. And I am afraid it will only carry on accelerating. To continue keeping people safe in this new risk landscape, we urgently need a more disaster-resilient Europe. We must build prevention, preparedness and response into every part of our society. This summer, Europe’s response capacities were strengthened like never before. We fulfilled the promise made by President von der Leyen last year to double our rescue firefighting air fleet to 28 planes and helicopters, pre-positioning firefighters and implementing a wildfire-prevention action plan and including a support team in the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre to monitor wildfires in real time. In fact, 18 firefighting planes and helicopters sent to help combat the flames in Greece this summer came from our collective reserve rescue fleet. In a dire sign of the need also to strengthen national reserves, other Member States could not send reinforcements due to their own high state of wildfire alert.  We are facing multiple challenges simultaneously. In July and August alone, the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre handled 12 activations – ranging from wildfires and floods to the gas explosion in Romania, ongoing assistance to Ukraine and support for the repatriation of EU citizens from Niger. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism – Europe’s disaster response system – is already working at full operational level. Over just two years, requests for assistance have increased by 400% and resources are strained to the limits. Soon, we might not be able to help where needed. Clearly, we must continue to strengthen our collective disaster response capacities. This is why the Commission requested a reinforcement of both the Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve and the flexibility instrument within the Multiannual Financial Framework revision. Whether we can continue delivering in the coming years – be it nationally or jointly – depends on the decisions we make today. The current very limited EU budget for civil protection is not enough; we need more financial reinforcement to protect people. Honourable Members, the past four years of this European mandate have demonstrated clearly that unprecedented disasters demand unprecedented cooperation and action. Yet they have also reminded us that disaster response alone will not be enough. To maintain a liveable future and survive this brutal new normality, we must not only increase our response capacity, we must also ensure that when disaster strikes, we are more resilient and the impact is smaller. That means more and better investments in increasing prevention and preparedness, in civil protection and in climate resilience across the board – across all EU policies and programmes, as well as at national levels. Finally, we must keep the climate mitigation ambition urgent and high on our agenda so that we do not face a future defined by disasters that outstrip our capacity to protect. It is our responsibility to act together and fast for the Union that protects Europeans like Dimitris and for a liveable future for all of us.