📋 Tender Overview
Today, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenar?i? met with Canada’s Minister of Trade Mary Ng to discuss the strengthening of EU and Canada cooperation on crisis response efforts. This is part of the EU and Canada’s efforts announced at the Strategic Partnership Summit on disaster response and emergency management last year.
At the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre, they discussed the recent agreement signed between interested EU Member States and the Canadian Commercial Corporation to start the production of 12 new amphibious firefighting planes to become the backbone of the permanent rescEU fleet. The planes, financed by the European Commission, will be hosted by Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
10 additional firefighting planes are being purchased by Member States directly to reinforce their national fleets. It is expected that the first batch of the new planes will be delivered at the end of 2027. The EU has, in turn, dispatched firefighting teams to Canada most recently in 2023 to help battle wildfires.
Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenar?i? said: “The danger of wildfires is ever-present in Europe. With forest blazes in Greece stretching into October, we can no longer speak of a “wildfire season”. We have to be ready to combat the next fire at any time of the year. Strengthening our rescEU firefighting fleet is strengthening European preparedness to respond to the repercussions of the climate crisis. We are all vulnerable to impacts of climate change – and we must all work together to address this vulnerability. I would like to thank Canada for the constructive cooperation in this matter.”
