Forests are burning more and more, despite greater financing. The EU loses control over the element

Along with the increase in financing by the EU aimed at preventing forest fires, their number and scale are growing – according to the report of the European Court of Accounting (ETO) published on Wednesday. According to him, ten times of Warsaw are burning in the Union countries.

EU controllers have examined how funds are spent in the Union to fight forest fires. They came to the conclusion that although financing increased, EU funds were not always spent effectively.

She was among the analyzed countries Poland as a country in which large forest fires are rarely recordedand also Greece, Portugal and Spain most affected by these cataclysm.

In these four countries, EUR 1 billion was spent on the fight against fires in the previous budget perspective (from 2014 to 2020). The same sum is scheduled in the current “seven -year -old” by 2027. What's more, EUR 1.5 billion is to be spent on projects to prevent the element preventing the element under the National Reconstruction Plan (KPO), which will operate until 2026.

Four out of seven programs inspected by ETO did not bring the expected results. For example, it will not be possible to introduce a prototype of the robotic forest system – such a project was implemented in Portugal.

In the case of Poland, the doubts of EU controllers were caused by a design for the development of fire or smoke detection systems. “It is not clear to what extent these technologies offer additional benefits to the products already available on the market. The Polish authorities maintained that one of the financed systems was tested, but they were not able to provide controllers in how many locations the system tests were conducted in how many locations” – admitted ETO.

The Tribunal decided that decisions on implemented projects were often taken in a hurry and investments that are crucial were not always chosen to prevent fires. In the middle of the studied countries, the projects were selected on the basis of outdated maps presenting the level of risk. Meanwhile – as EU controllers emphasized – funds for this purpose should be directed to regions where the risk of fires is greatest. In their opinion, long -term goals should be taken into account when this money is chapted.

In the tribunal's opinion, the importance of money allocated from the EU coffers for preventing fire will only increase in the coming years, taking into account the rising temperatures on the continent and the accompanying weather anomalies.

“Undoubtedly, the factor strengthening this trend is climate change. If you compare data for 2006–2010 and 2021–2024, then the number of fires with an area of ​​over 30 ha increased three times at that time,” ETO noted. From 2021, almost 1.9 thousand were recorded annually. such large -scale fires.

“Consequently, the area of ​​areas destroyed by fire has also increased significantly – the annual average for the last four years is 5250 km. In other words, fires absorb ten times of Warsaw in the EU each year,” the Tribunal alerted.

From Brussels Magdalena Cedro (PAP)

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