The European Court of Auditors (ECA) hosted an online press briefing last week on its upcoming special report on how EU money is used to tackle forest fires in European countries.
The purpose of the briefing was to provide a detailed overview of the audit, and to put its conclusions and recommendations into context. It also provided a chance for viewers to discuss the report with ECA Member Nikolaos Milionis and representatives of the audit team.
Forests and other woodland cover about 160 million hectares (ha) in the EU, i.e. almost 40 % of its total land area. Almost 2 000 major forest fires occur every year in the EU, burning hundreds of thousands of hectares, mainly – but not exclusively – in the southern member states.
Although climate change has increased the risk of fires across Europe, forests’ resilience to wildfires can be improved, for example through proper risk governance, appropriate forest management, and landscape planning activities.
The report assesses how effectively the European Commission and the member states make use of EU funding for preventing, preparing for, and recovering from forest fires. Four EU countries in particular were examined due to their high risk of forest fires and significant EU investments: Greece, Spain (covering the regions of Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia), Poland, and Portugal.
