Lobby calls for EU funds to fight forest fires

             

The European Commission should make sure that there is enough union funding available to help pick up the pieces after devastating forest fires like those seen this summer, said the EU farm lobby COPA-COGECA. In a press statement, the group drew attention to the plight of those in the farming and forestry industries who have been hit financially by the terrible fires that have swept across parts of southern France, Portugal, Spain and Italy over the last few months.

“In some regions, whole forests were completely burned in a matter of hours — not only leaving the forestry producers with a total loss of their expected income, but also destroying their means of production and infrastructures such as buildings and non-public roads onto their forests.”

The Committee of Agricultural Organizations in the EU, or COPA, and the General Committee for Agricultural Co-operation in the EU, or COGECA, want the commission to ensure that the EU Solidarity Fund is up to the job of supporting such victims of misfortune.

Portugal is so far the only member state to apply for help under the fund, and received more than 31.6 million Euro. But this sum pales in comparison to the estimated 1 billion Euro cost of the fires in Portugal alone. However, Regional Policy Commissioner Michel Barnier says that the fund is not supposed to rebuild but provide emergency aid.

The farm lobby group has also called for a coordinated afforestation policy to guide the replanting of the devastated areas, taking environmental and climatic factors into consideration, and the adoption of a coherent prevention policy for forest fires.