Protect Europe from burning!
The European Commission, especially the Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, Hadja Lahbib and the Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra.
Petition
Every summer, millions of Europeans face devastating wildfires, floods and extreme heat. Climate disasters are no longer exceptional events: they are a permanent threat to our safety.
If Europe can invest billions to prepare for military threats, it must also invest in protecting people from the climate emergency.
We call on the European Union to:
- Allocate at least €12 billion to the Union Civil Protection Mechanism in the next EU budget, giving Europe the firefighting aircraft, equipment, emergency teams and trained personnel it needs to protect people from climate disasters.
- Adopt binding EU legislation requiring every Member State to meet minimum standards for wildfire prevention and emergency preparedness, including prevention work throughout the year, sufficient trained firefighters, early warning systems and coordinated emergency planning.
- Hold governments accountable when they fail to protect people, by enforcing these standards through EU law and linking compliance to access to relevant EU funding.
Europe must stop treating climate disasters as national emergencies. They are a shared European responsibility.
Why is this important?
“It looked like the apocalypse”. [1] This is how firefighters describe this summer’s wildfires.
From Spain to France, Greece to Portugal, more than 300,000 people have been evacuated as forests, homes and lives disappear in smoke. [2] Entire families forced to say goodbye to a lifetime of memories, of savings, of the places they grew up. This can’t go on.
Europe cannot afford to treat every summer as another emergency. [3] Without far greater investment in prevention and firefighting, more people will be forced to flee, more lives will be put at risk, and entire landscapes will burn for months.
The European Parliament is already calling to put €12 billion into fighting wildfires and preventing them. The money isn’t final yet. It’s part of the EU budget being decided now, for the next 5 years. [4] If enough of us speak up before that budget is closed, we can make sure it stays in. Together, we can demand the protection every European deserves.
Sign to protect the EU from burning!
References:
- https://fortune.com/2026/07/27/bordeaux-wildfire-firestorm-evacuations-france-lightning-apocalypse/
- https://apnews.com/article/what-to-know-wildfires-france-spain-cb1e5877e1c7e4acbb80a8d9c2049f03 ; https://www.cntraveller.com/article/greece-wildfires-2026 ; https://eu-space.europa.eu/components/earth-observation-copernicus/image-of-the-day/portugal-wildfires-send-smoke-over-atlantic-ocean
- https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-wildfire-disaster-political-liability-conservatives-peoples-party-election-year/
- https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-10-2026-0111_EN.html