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EU Crisis Official Warns of 'Climate Breakdown' Amid Deadly Wildfires and Flooding
"These extreme weather events that used to be once in a lifetime are now an almost annual occurrence," said Janez Lenarčič.
Sep 18, 2024
With the Portuguese government declaring a "state of calamity" over wildfires that have killed at least seven people, and the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Central and Eastern Europe upended by deadly flooding, the European Union's top crisis official said the bloc must face the reality made evident by the disasters: "This is fast becoming the norm for our shared future."
A year after Europe was found to be the world's fastest-warming continent in an analysis by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the E.U.'s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarčič told the European Parliament on Wednesday that "the global reality of the climate breakdown has moved into the everyday lives of Europeans."
"Make no mistake. This tragedy is not an anomaly," said Lenarčič. "We face a Europe that is simultaneously flooding and burning. These extreme weather events that used to be once in a lifetime are now an almost annual occurrence."
As countries including Poland, Romania, Austria, and the Czech Republic were reeling from flooding caused by Storm Boris in recent days, more than 478 square miles in Portugal's northern region were torched by fast-moving wildfires that started over the weekend.
Dozens of homes have been destroyed by more than 100 separate wildfires as officials deployed 5,000 firefighters to try to control the blazes on Wednesday. Spain, France, and Italy—which is now also preparing for heavy rainfall like the torrential downpour that inundated Central and Eastern Europe—contributed waterbombing aircraft.
Lenarčič focused his address largely on the need to ramp up disaster preparedness, noting that the rise in costs for repairing infrastructure destroyed by storms and fires has ballooned in recent decades.
"The average cost of disasters in the 1980s was 8 billion euros per year," said Lenarčič. "Meanwhile in 2022 alone, the damages surpassed 50 billion euros per year... The cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of action."
Lenarčič called on the European Commission to work closely with E.U. member states to implement the bloc's Floods Directive and a robust water resilience strategy to tackle catastrophic flooding and water shortages.
"Such challenges cannot be tackled solely through the limited portfolio of civil protection," the commissioner said.
The Left in the European Parliament, a coalition of progressive parties, echoed Lenarčič's call to strengthen civil protection, but also emphasized the need to tackle "climate change and its impacts."
Progressives in Parliament have pushed member states to meet the goals set by the European Green Deal, a set of climate policies aimed at ensuring net-zero fossil fuel emissions by 2050 and slashing emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
"Our success will depend on how determined we are to combat climate change together in order to reduce emissions," said Terry Reintke, a German lawmaker who is co-president of the Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) group in the European Parliament.
With right-wing parties making significant gains in the bloc's parliamentary elections in June, analysts have said passing ambitious climate policies and targets will be more difficult.
Following the implementation of parts of the Green Deal, emissions are down by nearly a third from 1990 across the bloc, and member states are building wind and solar infrastructure. But right-wing leaders have pushed to block a ban on new gas- and diesel-powered cars that was set to take effect in 2035.
Far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in June that the proposed ban "was an ideological folly, which absolutely must be corrected."
On Wednesday, Italy's civil protection service issued 50 yellow alerts for the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions, warning that the areas would face the risk of landslides and flooding as they are expected to see the equivalent of two months of rainfall in the next three days.
The heavy rains have moved across Central Europe from parts of the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, and other countries, with at least 21 people killed by flooding.
"The E.U. must do everything in its power to help those affected by the devastating floods in many different E.U. countries," said the Greens/EFA. "These floods show that more than ever our fight against climate change is a common social and economic challenge we must tackle together."
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At Least 14 Dead, Dozens Wounded in Prague Mass Shooting
The Czech Republic has more permissive gun laws than many other European countries.
Dec 21, 2023
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
Residents and officials in the Czech Republic were stunned Thursday as news spread of a mass shooting at Charles University in Prague—a relatively rare occurrence in the Eastern European country—that reportedly killed at least 14 people and injured at least 24.
Authorities warned that the death toll was likely to rise.
The suspect, identified by Czech police—who use crime suspects' first names and last initials—as David K., was reportedly a 24-year-old world history student at the university. The New York Timesreported that he fatally shot himself in addition to the victims.
On social media, several users posted a photo of students clinging to a ledge on one of the school buildings as they tried to evade the shooter.
A police officer with Interpol Prague also reported that the suspect shot and killed his father in a town outside Prague before proceeding to the university.
The authorities were investigating late Thursday whether several violent messages posted in recent days by someone using the name David Kozak on the platform Telegram were connected to the shooting. One of the messages suggested that two mass shootings that took place in Russia earlier this month and in 2021 had inspired Thursday's shooting.
The Czech Republic restricts gun ownership by requiring stringent testing of people who try to buy firearms, but the government has less strict gun laws than most other European countries.
The country recognizes the "right to acquire, keep, and bear firearms" and the constitution was amended in 2021 to legally guarantee "the right to defend one's own life or the life of another person with a weapon."
Police said the gunman legally owned several firearms, as did the 63-year-old man who shot and killed eight people in a restaurant in an eastern town in 2015.
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EU and UN Security Council Members Rebuke Trump's Recognition of Israeli Sovereignty Over Golan Heights
"This unilateral action does nothing to assist in finding a long-term peaceful solution to the conflict in the Middle East."
Mar 28, 2019
European countries and members of the United Nations Security Council are speaking out against U.S. President Donald Trump's recent recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel has illegally occupied for more than five decades.
"If anybody feels any temptation to follow this poor example, we would urge them to refrain from this aggressive revision of international law."
--Vladimir Safronkov, Russian diplomat
The European Union (EU) issued a statement on Wednesday reaffirming its position that the occupation is illegal.
That came as members of the Security Council denounced Trump's decision at a meeting convened at the request of Syria, which called the president's move a "flagrant violation" of U.N. resolutions.
Trump initially announced his decision to support Israeli sovereignty over the territory on Twitter last week--immediately provoking international condemnation. He finalized the new stance by signing an official proclamation on Monday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House.
"This unilateral action does nothing to assist in finding a long-term peaceful solution to the conflict in the Middle East," South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Jerry Matjila said at the Security Council meeting on Wednesday, as Al Jazeera reported.
Vladimir Safronkov, the deputy ambassador from Russia--Syria's closest ally--added, "If anybody feels any temptation to follow this poor example, we would urge them to refrain from this aggressive revision of international law."
Representatives from Syria and Israel also joined the meeting. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon--according to official meeting notes--declared, "Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is forever."
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, during the Six-Day War, and officially annexed it 1981. That same year, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 497, which states that the "acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law, and relevant Security Council resolutions."
Resolution 497 specifically calls the Israeli occupation of the territory "null and void and without international legal effect."
In the E.U.'s statement on Wednesday, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini cited the resolution, and confirmed that "the European Union does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights."
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz highlighted the significance of Mogherini's statement, given that it required a consensus among all 28 members of EU.
As the newspaper noted, "it reflects the official stance of countries such as Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Austria, Lithuania and Romania," nations that Netanyahu has "courted in recent years in order to break up the unanimity within the EU when it comes to Israel."
While a world leaders and human rights advocates continue to raise alarm about Israel's occupation of Golan Heights and other territories, Netanyahu--who will face a tough election on April 9--has celebrated the Trump administration's new position.
According to the New York Times, shortly before Netanyahu arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel on Tuesday--after cutting short his trip to the United States--the prime minister told reporters that the decision by Trump was enough for him.
"Everyone says you can't hold an occupied territory, but this proves you can," Netanyahu said. "If occupied in a defensive war, then it's ours."
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