EU Unveils Heatwave Resilience Plan and Firefighting Fleet After Devastating Summer

BRUSSELS — A blistering summer that depleted rivers and claimed tens of thousands of lives across the European Union, from Portugal to Hungary, has underscored the urgent need for new tools to combat a worsening climate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated Wednesday.

This instability prompted her to propose a new European Heatwave Plan and the establishment of a future European firefighting fleet of aircraft. While the EU currently operates a small fleet, it coordinates a network of planes, water trucks, and volunteers that deploy across the 27-nation bloc as wildfires ignite.

“This summer was the summer of truth. Almost no part of our continent was spared,” the EU executive declared during her annual State of the European Union address in Strasbourg.

“Key rivers like the Danube, the Rhine, and La Garonne are vanishing before our eyes. More than 35,000 excess deaths occurred during the heat waves. Care homes and hospitals became dangerously overheated.”

The extreme heat, which struck Europe exceptionally hard and early this year, appears to have caused a much higher spike in deaths than anticipated. The origin of Von der Leyen’s figure of 35,000 remains unclear, but it is triple the estimates of “excess deaths” reported by monitoring groups in July.

Wildfires in France and Spain forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes, shut down nuclear reactors in Hungary and France, ignited century-old munitions along Belgium’s border with Germany, and revealed previously lost ships submerged on riverbeds, such as a tugboat in Serbia.

The heat and humidity that shattered numerous records during the summer would not have been possible without climate change, according to a study by the World Weather Attribution group.

“All of this is a mere preview. These were the hottest summer months ever, but probably the coolest of the years to come,” von der Leyen stated. “Science is clear: Europe is warming at double the global rate.”

While commending those who battled blazes this summer, von der Leyen stated that she has asked emergency responders and senior firefighters to “think bigger and learn faster” to design “new capabilities” for the EU to address climate instability.

When she praised a Danish helicopter pilot named Rune Kyndal, who died in August while fighting fires in Greece, the assembly erupted in applause.

“Rune gave his life to save others, and today, all of Europe owes him a debt,” von der Leyen said.

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