- This event has passed.
EU Auditors: Special report on EU support to tackle forest fires
11 June
On Wednesday 11 June, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish a special report on how EU money is used to tackle forest fires in European countries.
About the topic
Forests and other woodland cover about 160 million hectares (ha) in the EU, i.e. almost 40 % of its total land area. Almost 2 000 major forest fires occur every year in the EU, burning hundreds of thousands of hectares, mainly – but not exclusively – in the southern member states. Although climate change has increased the risk of fires across Europe, forests’ resilience to wildfires can be improved, for example through proper risk governance, appropriate forest management, and landscape planning activities.
About the audit
The report assesses how effectively the European Commission and the member states make use of EU funding for preventing, preparing for, and recovering from forest fires. Four EU countries in particular were examined due to their high risk of forest fires and significant EU investments: Greece, Spain (covering the regions of Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia), Poland, and Portugal.
ECA press office will hold an online briefing on Wednesday 11 June. Journalists who wish to participate should contact press@eca.europa.eu for details. The report and press release will be published on the ECA website eca.europa.eu at 5:00 p.m. CEST on Wednesday 11 June. The ECA member responsible for this report is Nikolaos Milionis.
The ECA’s special reports set out the results of its audits of EU policies and programmes or management topics related to specific budgetary areas. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.