The 12 new rescEU firefighting aircraft will be hosted by six member states, including Greece, with the Commission financing their purchase with 600 million euros.
In particular, the European Commission is funding the purchase of new firefighting planes to increase the aerial firefighting capacity of rescEU, the strategic crisis response reserve of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. €600 million of EU funds will be used to purchase 12 new planes, the which will be hosted in 6 EU member states: Croatia, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janes Lenarcioc, participated today in Zagreb in the signing ceremony of the agreement between the Government of Croatia and the Canadian Commercial Corporation for the purchase of specialized firefighting aircraft. As the Commission underlines, together with the signing of a similar agreement by the government of Greece recently, it marks an important step to increase aerial firefighting capability in the EU, protecting EU citizens from disasters.
As mentioned by the representative of the Commission, Balas Uzvari, they will be delivered from 2027, while in the meantime, the transitional planes will continue to be used until the entire fleet is operational.
These planes will be used to fight fires across the European Union, especially during the difficult summer months when lives, homes and livelihoods are increasingly threatened by large-scale forest fires, the Commission points out.
Five years ago, the European Commission upgraded the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and created rescEU to further protect citizens from disasters and manage emerging risks. rescEU was created as a pool of European capabilities and includes a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters. rescEU is fully funded by the EU.
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