The Minister of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, believes that the objectives proposed by Brussels for the reinforcement of air resources in the European Union should be anticipated until the end of the decade.
“2029 and 2030 for the reinforcement of these resources is already too late, depending on the new conditions and the extreme fires that we will have to face”said José Luís Carneiro, underlining that “yesterday would be too late”.
The minister spoke this afternoon in Brussels, on the sidelines of a meeting between the ministers of the 27 responsible for civil protection, with the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, who this Monday recognized the need for “reinforcement of resources”. in the European Union.
Minister José Luís Carneiro reported that the 27 have accepted the proposal to carry out “a repositioning of air assets in accordance with the risks considered”.
“This media pre-positioning experiment was done in Greece [onde] had effective results in terms of reaction rate. And that is why the majority of those who spoke decided to support the Commission’s proposal to establish four pre-positioning centers for the same resources.”stated José Luís Carneiro, who reported on the “availability of Portugal” to the Commission.
“Portugal expressed its willingness to accommodate any of these resources, if necessary, in collaboration with Spain, as it could be, in anything to do with border proximity, creating a response of greater speed within the Iberian Peninsula”said the minister.
Carneiro wants to take place “in November” this year “a seminar to learn the lessons the experience has taught us this year and to learn more about the great fires that raged across Europe and also in Portugal”.
The aim of the initiative is: “contribute to an immediate action plan, in preparation for the year 2023, by the European Commission”integrate “the knowledge produced in the units that are part of the national civil protection systems, (…) in the knowledge network currently being developed under the European Civil Protection Mechanism”.
The Minister emphasized the increased awareness of fires within the European Union and emphasized that: “this is not a problem for individual member states because of the harmful effects of climate change”but “a problem for all Member States (…) common to the whole European Union”.
Source: DN
