The support for Greece will consist of both aerial and ground firefighting resources, Albania will receive a multipurpose military plane from Romania, which can carry up to 6 tonnes of water.
The EU Commission is preparing to send emergency support to Greece and Albania to help the two countries tackle severe wildfires.
The support for Greece will consist of both aerial and ground firefighting resources, which will be provided by other European countries under the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
This includes two rescEU firefighting planes from Italy, a rescEU helicopter from France, a chopper offered by Serbia, as well as more firefighting teams on the ground from the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Romania and Serbia.
Albania will receive a multipurpose military plane from Romania, which can carry up to 6 tonnes of water.
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism plays a key role in disaster response in Europe and can be requested by individual EU member states and 10 participating non-EU countries.
The European Commission has just announced that €600 million in EU funds will be injected into the mechanism to increase its aerial firefighting capacity as wildfires become an increasing problem across Europe.
Twelve new planes will be purchased and sent to the six EU member states of Croatia, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Spain.
“This is an important step to acquiring the aircraft which will help protect citizens not just in Croatia and Greece but across Europe,” European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said.
“It will be 100% paid for by the European Commission as part of our strengthened rescEU fire fighting capacity ready to fight ever more intense wildfires in Europe.”
It comes as Lenarčič has signed an agreement in Zagreb between the government of Croatia and the Canadian Commercial Corporation to purchase specialised firefighting aircraft.
Wildfires rage on
Greece has been battling a huge blaze which began in the northeast of Athens on Sunday afternoon and spread across Mount Pendeli and into the northern and northeastern suburbs of the capital.
One woman has died, and more than a dozen people have been injured as firefighters struggled to control the flames fanned by strong winds at the start of the week.
The fire department said the fire no longer had any active, advancing fronts and firefighters were concentrating their efforts on extinguishing the flames in hundreds of slow-burning areas.
In Albania, civil emergency services are attempting to put out fires in and around the village of Mesopotam. Two families have been evacuated.
Wildfires are frequent in the Western Balkan country during its hot, dry summers, but authorities have said climate change is fueling bigger and more frequent blazes.
