Fighting wildfires in the EU

Ongoing wildfires have triggered one of the biggest evacuation operations in Europe, displacing more than 300,000 people in France and Spain. The EU has deployed assistance to both France and Spain under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

In France, the EU has deployed seven planes and four helicopters from Czechia, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, and Türkiye. Most of these aircraft are part of the rescEU firefighting fleet. In Spain, the EU has mobilised six planes from Greece, Italy and Türkiye, and deployed134 personnel and 41 vehicles from Portugal.

The EU's Copernicus satellite service is also providing rapid emergency maps to support the response on the ground. The EU's Emergency Response Coordination Centre remains in close contact with both the French and Spanish authorities, to assess what further support can be potentially mobilised, and a liaison officer from the European Commission is in Bordeaux to help national authorities coordinate EU assistance.

As part of the EU's preparedness measures ahead of this year's wildfire season, firefighting teams from other European countries had already been pre-positioned in France and Spain before the fires began, allowing them to reinforce national responders immediately.