Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 9 September 2025 - Strasbourg

Devastating wildfires in Southern Europe: the need to strengthen EU aid to restore the massive loss of forests and enhancing EU preparedness (debate)

  Fidias Panayiotou (NI). – Mr President, my country, Cyprus, faced the biggest wildfire in the last 50 years, and the European Union did almost nothing to help us.

If you look at Cyprus on the map, you can very easily understand the main problem: we are too far away from continental Europe. This means all the help sent from the EU doesn't reach us on time. This is such a big issue.

With this wildfire, we actually received more help from third countries like Jordan, Egypt, Israel and Lebanon than from the EU countries. This is not a good look for the European Union, and us Cypriots feel abandoned by the EU.

Don't get me wrong; we are very grateful for all the help, but sadly it is not enough. We need more investment for prevention through the EU Cohesion Fund and more firefighting equipment in Cyprus through the rescEU programme.

European Union – you were not in Cyprus when we needed you the most, and this needs to change. I love you all.