EU faces fury over firefighter cuts during record wildfire season

While European Union countries spend the summer months battling massive wildfires, reductions in firefighting budgets are drawing fierce criticism.

According to a report by EUobserver, firefighters have grown tired of being branded “heroes” by politicians.

“We don’t want to be called heroes; we want to be given resources,” said Ludovic Goblet, a representative of the French firefighters’ union Spasdis-CFTC.

His remarks came days after fresh EU figures revealed that the number of professional firefighters across Europe fell by 18,000 during the worst wildfire year on record.

That decline included a reduction of more than 4,000 personnel in France alone.

French firefighters set out three urgent demands

A coalition of trade unions representing France’s fire and rescue services held a meeting lasting approximately two hours with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez last Thursday.

The coalition put forward three primary demands: additional resources to cope with the surge in emergency calls, the mass recruitment of professional firefighters, and new legislation to modernise civil protection services.

“The minister failed to meet our expectations; we received no concrete response. We have no guarantees regarding funding, funding strategy, or the content of the legislation,” said union spokesperson Xavier Boy.

Boy noted that the resources allocated to fire services have not kept pace with the rising number of interventions and multiplying crises.

Lack of resources fuels strike call for September

Unions have called for a “major mobilisation” on 29 September, a day when public sector workers are also planning to strike.

David Saquet of the UNSA firefighters’ union told AFP that professional firefighters also plan to stage a protest at Place de la Republique in Paris three days earlier.

Firefighters say they are exhausted following one of the worst wildfire seasons in French history, with provisional estimates indicating that at least 120,000 hectares have burned since the beginning of the summer.

Of the 256,400 firefighters registered with the French Interior Ministry, only 44,000—or approximately 17%—are either professional or military personnel.

In recent weeks, applications to become volunteer firefighters have doubled, and in some departments tripled.

Fire officials report that, driven in part by a wave of public gratitude, they have had to process as many applications in a few weeks as they typically receive in six months.

French interior minister plays for time

Nuñez said on Thursday that long-awaited draft legislation to reorganize the country’s civil protection services would be presented on 8 September.

Launched in mid-2024, the initiative aimed to modernise a system widely seen as on the verge of collapse by providing additional financial support. However, the process had ground to a halt since then.

The interior minister welcomed the “very frank discussions” held with unions on Thursday.

The minister stated that the proposal to be presented in September would “more clearly define the missions” of French firefighters, who “currently have to respond to personal medical emergencies just as frequently as they respond to disasters or fires.”

In a statement published on the social media platform X, Nuñez added that discussions regarding the funding of fire services remain ongoing, with additional resources expected to be allocated in the 2027 budget.

European Commission enforces fiscal austerity

Ahead of this summer, the European Commission told member states that they needed to ensure they maintained an “adequately sized and well-prepared” firefighting force.

Yet the Commission is simultaneously enforcing the EU’s strict fiscal rules, which have led to spending cuts in public services, including fire departments.

Poland, for example, recorded the largest drop in firefighter numbers last year. Alongside France, it was placed under the Excessive Deficit Procedure in 2024.

Belgium faces a similar situation: the country’s fire services are tackling wildfires with a 10% reduction in staffing in 2024 and a further loss of 200 firefighters in 2025.

This development is not only hazardous for the public and firefighters. Damage caused by wildfires this summer has already exceeded 3 billion euros.

Conversely, the same fiscal logic is not applied to defence, where massive investments are being channelled into military equipment.

According to EUobserver, in the face of mounting and increasingly complex threats, austerity policies have left Europe weaker, more divided, and less prepared in almost every respect for the challenges ahead.