‘Prevention is the Keyword’. This was the clear message from Colonel Papadimitriou – one of the senior officers in charge of the Greek fire fighting squadron at the Elefsina air base. Last week I visited Greece to learn how one of Europe’s most disaster prone countries organises itself to deal with threats, and especially with the most immediate one – forest fires.
Colonel Papadimitriou’s expertise is exactly this: fighting forest fires. He spoke about the criticality of prevention just minutes after six of his pilots had rushed out of our meeting to fly their fourth mission of the day. This time it was to extinguish a fire in Corinth which is about 80 km southwest of Athens.
The fire season in Greece runs from May to October. There is always a risk of a deadly combination of heat and wind that results in massive fires that can set hundreds of hectares of forest ablaze in a very short time. In 2007 the total burnt area amounted to 270 000 hectares, 84 lives were lost and the total economic damage was nearly € 5 billion. Fortunately, this year there was a relatively wet spring which has meant that there have been fewer fires than usual – but the real heat of the summer still lies ahead.
With 53 aircraft, spread over six air bases, and with many highly skilled pilots, Greece is in a very good position to fight fires when they break out. That is unless they reach the overwhelming size of the blazes in 2007. Under these circumstances Greece – like other countries whose national capacity is exceeded by the sheer size of a disaster– was able to count on the support of its European partners. In total the EU assistance amounted to 24 airplanes, 22 helicopters, as well as some 400 ground troops and experts.
But, as the Colonel said, pevention is key – it reduces the risks of fires and the damage it costs. I was glad to hear consistently the same message during all my meetings in Athens , where I met with the Minister for Citizen’s Protection Michalis Chrysohoides; the Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Tina Birbili; the deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Spyros Kouvelis and the Alternate Minister of Defence Panos Beglitis. Prevention is never easy. It requires many government agencies with different experiences and responsibilities to work closely together. In all of our Member States it is an area where more work can be done.
In light of this context, I was very encouraged to see that Greece is already planning new initiatives: creating a voluntary force to patrol forests, starting forest patrols on motor bikes to deter arsonists, developing new laws on land use. This is certainly the right way to go and in all of this the EU stands ready to support Greece with projects to help prevent natural disasters.
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Dear Commissioner,
Greece needs of water, a lot.
Please check the link below and ask someone in charge to calculate what it would be the economical and ecological impact of installation wind driven water pumps on high hills of Greece.
Count 5000 to 10.000 pumps produced in Europe and commissioned in Greece.
Why not do similar for Italy and Spain.
http://posharp.com/energy/ptype=building_water-windmill/btype=service/xtype=ntype/companies.aspx?pg=1
Mrs. Georgieva !
We in Bulgaria have a very bad cross border co-ordination among the civil networks with our neighbors – Greece and Turkey, covering your field as EU commissioner. It could be great if you support the start-up of the EU programs for cross-border developments and the integration of all civil efforts in prevention forest fires. We in the very south-east angle of the EU are still waiting the initiation of the EU – cross border-program Bulgaria-Turkey(2007-2013). Such kind of programs maid have a critical role in your efforts…
Sorry I took so long to respond — just to say that we are supporting regional efforts in civil protection, and will review what more can be done in all areas , including fighting forest fires.
Dear Kristalina. It is very nice you are watching Greece. What about Slovakia, have you ever heard about the flooding there? Is your interest connected only with bigger countries or do you have also other plans?
Could you explain why is whole EU against being RESPONSIBLE and whants to punish responsible countries/residents? Is it fair?
Roman
Dear Roman,
I apologise for responding only now but this must have slipped somehow. I followed the situation in Slovakia very closely and we are always ready to intervene via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism provided there is need and the national authorities request it.
I share your views on the importance of disaster preparedness and am visiting many of our Member States of all sizes to pass on this message. For instance, I have just returned from Hungary and was in Portugal last week). I promise to visit Slovakia in the near future.
Nevertheless, sometimes even the best prepared cannot cope alone. More and more often disasters take such a scale or require such specific technical or human know-how, that help from partner EU Member States can be necessary. This can happen to any of our countries, even the bigger ones. This is why I consider it important to enhance our overall preparedness and capacity to respond to such disasters. In fact the Commission should adopt a new Communication on this topic later in the month.
King regards,
Kristalina Georgieva