With two flying devices, the European Fee will strengthen the protecting umbrella of the Republic of Cyprus towards fires within the coming summer time season, at a time when meteorological forecasts present a scorching summer time within the Southeast Mediterranean area with temperatures above regular, which will increase the danger outbreak of forest fires.
This was said in a briefing given to journalists on-line on the EU Home in Nicosia, the pinnacle of communication of the European Civil Safety and Humanitarian Assist Operations (ECHO), Zacharias Giakoumis.
As said within the briefing given by Mr. Giakoumis relating to the actions and the bundle of supporting measures of the Fee within the area of prevention and in addition of strengthening the states for extinguishing fires, the 2 light-type fire-fighting plane (Air Tractor sort) shall be leased by the The Republic of Cyprus, however with EU bills lined. The identical help with plane from the Republic of Cyprus, by the civil safety mechanism RescEU, was accomplished final yr as effectively.
The protection of the leasing prices of the 2 plane by the Fee mechanism will begin on June 15 and can final till October 30. In case one other EU member wants them, and Cyprus prompts help to different nations by the mechanism, these plane could also be moved to help in firefighting.
In his briefing, Mr. Giakoumis initially stated RescEU's function is only supportive as civil safety is the duty of the EU member states. As he famous, since 2001, the mechanism has been activated over 700 instances, till 2019 there have been about 20 activations a yr, a quantity that has since elevated to 100.
Since 2016, Cyprus has activated the mechanism 8 instances, whereas since then it has supplied 16 help by the mechanism to different nations. It’s famous that help just isn’t solely given to EU nations but additionally to different nations comparable to Canada, when a hearth had burned roughly 18.8 million hectares of forest land. He famous that RescEU's greatest activation occurred final yr in the course of the fires in Evros, Greece.
Mr. Giakoumi stated 2023 was the most popular yr on document, with about 500 million hectares burned, a 32% enhance from the typical burned hectares since 2006. Of this burned land, over 2/3 had been in Greece (175 thousand), Spain and Italy. Final yr, 24 of the 27 EU nations had been affected by fires, whereas Greece and Cyprus requested help from the Mechanism twice. It’s noteworthy that final yr, for the primary time, Germany requested for assist to extinguish a hearth.
So far as Greece is anxious, final yr was essentially the most disastrous yr when it comes to burnt lands and never in relation to the lack of human lives. Other than final yr, very damaging years for Greece had been additionally 2007 and 2021, whereas the typical burned land per yr since 2006 quantities to 50 thousand hectares and the typical variety of fires is 55-60. In 2023, along with the help it requested twice, Greece despatched help by the Mechanism two extra instances, as soon as to Albania and one other to Cyprus.
In our nation, in 2023, 2 thousand hectares had been burned in fires whereas 10 fires broke out (to be counted as a hearth, they have to burn greater than 30 hectares of land).
Mr. Giakoumis stated that primarily based on the Mechanism's medium-term forecasts for local weather situations, the typical temperatures in Europe is not going to enhance in comparison with final yr, except the area of Southeast Europe the place above-average temperatures are predicted and subsequently an elevated threat of fires .
Referring to the European Civil Safety Mechanism, Mr. Giakoumis stated that this yr it is going to contribute with help to the member states with 28 plane (24 plane and 4 helicopters), whereas in 2022 the Mechanism supplied solely 13 plane.
This summer time 28 planes and 4 helicopters shall be obtainable to them, along with Cyprus and Greece, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. He additionally talked about that this yr, for the third yr in a row, the presence of firefighters who will accept the summer time season in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain is increasing and consolidating. Particularly, the variety of these firefighters is 550 this yr and roughly 200 to 240 firefighters shall be put in in Greece.
These firefighters supporting RescEU come from Slovakia, Italy, Romania, Greece, Austria, Bulgaria, Moldova, Malta, Estonia, Latvia and Finland.
Answering a query, Mr. Giakoumis defined that the help of each aviation means and human sources, i.e. the firefighters, are built-in into the nationwide authorities, i.e. the hearth companies of the states, and act below their orders.
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