Following this summer’s devastating natural disasters, CESI member organisations active in the field of fire fighting and other emergency response services met with the European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič and paid tribute to all those in the line of duty, who go over and beyond to save lives when crises occur. The meeting took place online and managed to gather both the perspective of experts and practitioners on what is needed for EU member states to collectively improve their capacities and responses to crisis management.

Next to the Commissioner, a representative of the Expert Group on Forest Fires and the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), Dr. Jesús San-Miguel-Ayanz, as well as CESI Secretary-General Klaus Heeger, Vice-President of the German Civil Service Federation ‘ddb beamtenbund und tarifunion’ Kirsten Lühmann, the Secretary-General of the French firefighters’ union ‘Avenir Secours’ Alain Laratta and the President of the French firefighters’ union ‘FA SPP-PATS’ Xavier Boy contributed to the discussion.

Commissioner Janez Lenarčič showcased the European responses to crisis management with a focus on the ‘EU Civil Protection Mechanism’ and the ‘rescEU reserve’. He said: “In light of the climatic challenges Europe is facing, the devastating events of 2021 might become the new norm. As such it is clear that EU member states must improve their readiness and preparedness and the European Commission has established extensive actions to increase its coordination role, and it invests heavily in both acquiring technical assets and in facilitating exchanges of best practices, knowledge and information of the experts involved and of the communities at risk. The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) is one of the best practices in terms of monitoring and early detection systems in the world. These kind of initiatives, EFFIS together with rescEU and the Civil Protection Mechanism, are the examples of cooperation and collective crisis management, which separate the EU from the rest of the world and ensure better outcomes in terms of saved lives and mitigating the negative effects of climate change.”

Along the same lines, CESI Secretary-General Klaus Heeger added: “Each year, we witness the effects of climate change: extreme heatwaves, wildfires, torrential rains and flooding. While the frequency of theses disasters increases, we are not only concerned by these phenomena as citizens, but we are concerned as trade unions representing fire-fighters, doctors as well as staff in emergency and rescue services. Frontline workers go above and beyond their capacities to save people’s lives and limit the damages to property and nature. And, yes, they need our support.”

The event had both a symbolic and effective meaning for the members of CESI: It acknowledged the public service personnel and its sacrifice in the line of duty but it also bridged the gap between practices at national and European level. It was one step forward in what CESI has been advocating for long:

• More investment in the public services and attention to the psychological pressure certain professions are exposed to;
• More sharing of good practices, expertise and information between practitioners (above all fire-fighters) and experts (which could lead to a certain harmonisation of national protocols for fire management) across Europe;
• More transparency and awareness of and for the work performed by the European Commission (e.g. in the context of the Expert Group on Forest Fires) and the different EU concepts, tools and programs available for mitigating natural disasters;
• Ideally the creation of a genuine ‘EU strategy for combatting forest fires’ to foster better cooperation and coordination across Member States;
• A European status for rescuers;
• Better interoperability of material and equipment for fire fighters and sharing of assets across the Member States.