BRUSSELS: The European Union wants to sign contracts this year for up to 12 firefighting planes, the first it would fully own, to improve its ability to fight blazes fuelled by climate change, the bloc’s head of crisis management said.
The EU doubled its existing reserve fleet of firefighting aircraft in the past year, after devastating fires last summer in southern Europe exhausted its previous 13-craft capacity.
That fleet comprises 28 aircraft, which the EU pays to lease from EU countries’ own fleets or the market, to form a bloc-wide buffer during the wildfire season. That doubling of numbers is expected to cost €23 million, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said.
But as climate change increases the risk of severe blazes, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said Brussels wanted contracts signed this year to buy 12 EU-owned craft, plus another 12 to bolster countries’ own national fleets.
“We could have the first planes delivered two years later. And the whole fleet would be there by the end of the decade,” Lenarcic told Reuters.
Manufacturer De Havilland Canada has agreed to re-launch production of the “Canadair” aircraft, if the EU orders are placed, Lenarcic said.
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