European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans on Wednesday to establish a new European firefighting fleet of airplanes, responding to a summer that saw record-breaking temperatures and widespread environmental damage across the bloc. During her annual State of the European Union address in Strasbourg, von der Leyen emphasized that the extreme weather conditions experienced from Portugal to Hungary demonstrated the urgent need for new tools to address a worsening climate.
The European Union currently operates a limited fleet of its own while coordinating a broader network of water trucks, aircraft, and volunteers that deploy across the 27-nation bloc as fires emerge. The commission president highlighted that this summer served as a "summer of truth," noting that almost no part of the continent remained unaffected by the heat. She pointed to the disappearance of major rivers like the Danube, the Rhine, and La Garonne, alongside the overheating of care homes and hospitals.
Von der Leyen cited a figure of more than 35,000 additional deaths linked to the heat waves, though this estimate is significantly higher than the "excessive deaths" figures reported by monitoring groups in July. The intense heat led to severe consequences, including the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents in France and Spain, the shutdown of nuclear reactors in France and Hungary, the ignition of century-old munitions along the Belgian-German border, and the exposure of sunken ships in riverbeds, such as a tugboat in Serbia.
According to research from the World Weather Attribution group, the record-breaking heat and humidity levels would not have been possible without the influence of climate change. Addressing the assembly, von der Leyen stated, "Science is clear: Europe is warming at double the global rate." She warned that the recent months, while the hottest on record, likely represent the coolest of the years to come.
In response to these challenges, the commission president has requested that senior firefighters and emergency responders "think bigger and learn faster" to develop new capabilities for managing climate instability. She also proposed the creation of a new European Heatwave Plan. During her address, she paid tribute to Rune Kyndal, a Danish helicopter pilot who died in August while battling fires in Greece, prompting applause from the assembly. "Rune gave his life to save others and today, all of Europe owes him," von der Leyen said.
