The affiliated union participants, professional firefighters from Germany and France, sought to shed light in particular on the growing need for an improved European coordination in natural crisis management and support, as well as on related professional challenges of firefighters in terms of training, equipment, working conditions – and not least recognition of their work.

Through a series of meetings with Members of the European Parliament, members of the cabinets of the European Commissioners for the Green Deal (Frans Timmermans), the Environment (Virginijus Sinkevičius) and Crisis Management (Janez Lenarčič) as well as the Director of the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), they outlined the daily challenges that firefighters and rescue service staff are confronted with: insufficient and outdated equipment, dissatisfying working conditions, high exposure to risks, and increasing needs for cross border cooperation and support.

In an exchange with Pierre Joassart, the legal representative of Rudy Matzak in the famous ‘Matzak’ case on the classification of on-call time as working time, recent EU and national rulings on the constitution of working time and their impacts on firefighters were given detailed and precise examination.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “Wildfires in the EU are increasing in scope, frequency, and intensity. For 2022, statistics show a 30% increase in the burnt area over the previous worst year recorded, 2017, and a more than 170% increase over the average burnt area since EU-level recording started in 2006. Despite being tasked with fundamental emergencies, lifesaving and protection duties, firefighters face hardest working conditions, 24-hour shifts and poor remuneration. In the aftermath of the record-breaking forest fire year 2022, our message is clear: We need more investments in firefighting, more cross border cooperation, and more EU. And we need fair and decent employment and working conditions.”

He added: “Most shockingly, firefighters are increasingly victims of harassment and violence during crisis and rescue operations. We need more awareness, more recognition, more valorisation in society about the life-saving and helping role that firefighers have and the instrumental service they bring to all citizens and the environment. Where necessary, we also need to step up efforts to protect firefighters better from assaults. The experiences, demands, interests and safety of firefighters must be at the core of any measure aiming at improving and strengthening civil protection schemes. And although firefighting is above all a national competence, more coordination, cooperation and support at EU level is also required – not least due to the catastrophic trans-national impacts of climate change on response needs.”

In a common statement, the participants strongly condemned the increase of harassment and violence against firefighters. The full statement is available here.