Portugal hosts European seminar on fire prevention
“Response, preparation and prevention” are the objectives of the seminar that takes place in Portugal on the 10th and 11th, with the participation of more than 30 countries, to share lessons learned in fighting fires in 2022.
On the 10th and 11th of January, in Lisbon, the European Commission and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are promoting a seminar to share lessons learned in fighting rural fires based on an analysis of the 2022 fire season.
Under the motto “Lessons Learned Program for the 2022 Rural Fire Season of the European Civil Protection Mechanism”, representatives from more than 30 countries are expected to participate.
“Response, preparation and prevention” are the three objectives of the seminar, which take place in Portugal at the suggestion of the Minister of Internal Administration, José Luís Carneiro.
The regulation highlighted the importance of strengthening European coordination and capacity to respond to fires in time for the 2023 rural fire season, when presenting an initiative at the Council of Interior Ministers of the European Union (EU) in September 2022, recalls the ministry in a statement.
in terms of prevention prevention“The steps to better anticipate the occurrence of rural fires at national and European level will be discussed”.
At the level of answer the lessons learned in combating rural fires will be tolerant, within the framework of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, in 2022, and in terms of preparation will be preserved as measures put in place to manage the risks and reduce the impacts of fires.
The Minister of Internal Administration also defended a greater commitment to the pre-positioning of means in different EU territories and was available to welcome them in Portugal, says the statement from the tutelage.
It is recalled that the President of the European Commission announced, in September 2022, the reinforcement of the European firefighting fleet, highlighting that the EU needs more means because rural fires are “increasingly more frequent and more intense”.
“No country can fight alone against these extreme weather events and their devastating force”, said Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address, during a plenary session of the European Parliament.
The opening of the seminar on the “Programme of Lessons Learned from the 2022 Rural Fire Season of the European Civil Protection Mechanism” will be attended by the European Commissioner for Crisis Management and Humanitarian Aid, Janez Lenarčič, Minister José Luís Carneiro and Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin via videoconference and as a representative of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
This is followed by a panel in which, among others, the Minister of the Climate Crisis and Civil Protection of Greece, Christos Stylianides, and (by videoconference) the Ministers of the Interior of the Czech Republic, Vít Rakušan, of Spain, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and from France, Gérald Darmanin.