Resolution on the July 2018 fires in Mati in the Attica region of Greece and the EU’s response

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the July 2018 fires in Mati in the Attica region of Greece and the EU’s response.

The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, and EFDD groups.

Parliament expressed its condolences to the families affected by the fires in Mati in the Attica region of Greece in July 2018, which tragically left 99 dead and hundreds injured.

It highlighted the role of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism in supplying aircraft, vehicles, medical personnel and firefighters from across the European Union, and paid tribute to the people who risked their lives to rescue their fellow citizens. It recalled that EU funds, such as the EU Solidarity Fund, can be used to restore vital infrastructure and for clean-up operations after a natural disaster, and also called on Member States to take full advantage of the EU cohesion funds to support fire prevention and emergency response.

Members called on the Commission to:

• take account of forest fire risk and ecosystem-based forest and landscape management when evaluating current EU measures such as the EU forest strategy and the EU strategy on adaptation to climate change, and to adjust these strategies if any gaps are identified;
• finalise with Parliament and Council the interinstitutional negotiations on the new Union Civil Protection Mechanism and the creation of rescEU by the end of 2018.

Lastly Parliament urged the Commission and Member States to set targets and implement climate policies that will meet the commitments made under the Paris COP 21 agreement, having noted that the World Meteorological Organisation on 1 August 2018 published a document providing evidence that the heat wave in Europe in 2018 is linked to climate change.