EUROPEAN UNION TO DEPLOY 650 FIREFIGHTERS TO HIGH-RISK WILDFIRE ZONES

CLIMATE EMERGENCY • The European Union is bracing for a particularly intense wildfire season. The European Commission has announced the pre-positioning of nearly 650 firefighters and over 20 aerial firefighting vehicles across high-risk locations in the EU, as burned areas have already almost tripled the 20-year average.

Brussels, May 26, 2025 – Hundreds of firefighters from across Europe and more than twenty aerial firefighting vehicles will be pre-positioned in high-risk wildfire locations across the bloc this summer, the European Commission announced on Monday.

Nearly 650 firefighters from 14 European countries will be deployed in July and August to key high-risk areas in France, Greece, Portugal, and Spain. This marks the highest number since the pre-positioning of firefighters across the EU began in 2022. Greece will host half of the European firefighters, with teams coming from Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, France, Moldova, and Romania. Meanwhile, 22 firefighting airplanes and four helicopters will be stationed in ten different Member States.

Benefiting Countries and EU Support

France and Greece will be the main beneficiaries of the EU-backed summer fleet, which will be coordinated and financed through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, each receiving four medium amphibious aircraft. France will also receive a helicopter. Other countries receiving assets from the summer fleet include Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.

Hadja Lahbib, European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness, and Crisis Management, stated in a press release that EU "support is tangible and makes a difference on the ground." She added, "Extreme heat and wildfires in Europe have unfortunately become the new normal. I am pleased that the EU has more to offer than just words of concern and consolation."

The EU is prepared to mobilize an additional 19 ground firefighting teams, each comprising about thirty firefighters, and an advisory and assessment team. A dedicated wildfire support team will be established at the EU's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), operating 24/7 to monitor risks and analyze scientific data. This group will bring together thirty experts from EU Member States and other countries participating in the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the European Scientific Partnership on Natural Hazards (Aristotle), and ERCC staff.

Greece, which tends to be heavily impacted each summer, has already announced it will deploy a record number of firefighters, including elite units in high-risk areas, and nearly double its drone fleet.

A Record Year for EU Wildfires

Since the beginning of 2025, more than 166,000 hectares have burned across the 27 Member States, almost three times the average recorded for the same period between 2003 and 2024, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

Romania has been the most affected EU Member State this year, with over 120,000 hectares reduced to ash. Authorities have attributed some of the wildfires to human action, including intentional burning to clear fields. France and Spain follow, but these two traditionally fire-prone countries have had different experiences. Nearly 19,000 hectares burned in France by May 20, about 2.75 times the average of the last twenty years, while Spain's tally this year is so far below the twenty-year average (8,195 hectares versus 13,059).

Cumulatively, burned areas last year reached 383,317 hectares, exceeding the twenty-year average. The most devastating years of the last decade were 2017 and 2022, when almost one million and just under 800,000 hectares were razed, respectively.

Climate Change and Drought Behind European Fires

The spread of wildfires in Europe has been attributed to climate change, which has led to warmer temperatures, prolonged droughts, and unpredictable weather patterns. Demographic changes, leading to the desertification of rural areas in favor of urban centers, also contribute, meaning that land is no longer managed in the same way.

The fire season, for instance, has extended beyond the traditional summer months and now runs from early May to late October, while an increasing number of Eastern and Northern European countries are beginning to experience such fires. According to the European and Global Drought Observatory of the Commission's Joint Research Centre, drought conditions are ongoing in the Baltic Sea region, northern France, Benelux, several regions of Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, western Romania, Bulgaria, and some regions of Greece. Most of Spain, Italy, and southern France, however, are not experiencing drought conditions or are in a recovery phase.