Civil Protection Mechanism activated for forest fires in Greece & Albania

Greece and Albania have activated the Civil Protection Mechanism requesting urgent aerial assistance for raging forest fires in their countries. Within a few hours, the European Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) was able to deliver a coordinated EU response with aerial assets provided by Spain, France and Italy.

Greece has suffered large-scale forest fires in recent days in Alexandroupolis in the North-East of the country. Due to extreme weather conditions, the country is currently facing more than 100 forest fires, including 7 major ones.

On 25th August at 12.50 p.m. the Monitoring and Information Centre of the European Commission and the participating states to the Mechanism received a request from Greece for 6 fire fighting planes.

Thanks to the Monitoring and Information Centre of the European Commission, countries within the EU but also beyond the borders which are overwhelmed by natural and man-made disasters can request assistance from the 31 participating states (EU-27 plus Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). In reacting together, they can provide assistance more rapidly and effectively than by acting alone, which is also a demonstration of European solidarity.

Over the past two summers the Civil Protection Mechanism (CPM) has been activated 20 times to respond to forest fires inside and outside Europe, with Portugal, Greece, Italy and France being the most vulnerable.