At the meeting, jointly hosted with the Defence Minister Niko Peleshi, the Premier put emphasis on the indispensability of a timely and efficient response to prevent wildfires from spreading, a situation which currently knows no geographical limits, posing a serious threat to many areas across the country.

The government head called for total mobilization of all relevant bodies and local emergency crews to efficiently act to prevent and put out forest fires throughout the country.

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“Thank you very much for taking the trouble to come here and join this discussion on a very pressing and sensitive issue. This is certainly a challenging season, not only for us, but for the entire Europe.

The data collected from the operational unit at European Emergency Response Coordination Centre show record-breaking wildfires across Europe, with the number of fires doubled due to the extremely high temperatures during this summer season with which we are all familiarized because of the escalation of the global warming, as well as the intentional arsons.

Wildfires have swept across huge swathes of forests in many countries during July, starting with Great Britain, which is going through an incredibly unusual situation, as well as other countries that have been facing such a phenomenon previously, including Portugal, Spain, France, and Greece. The ongoing situation is for us something we should get used to and become fully aware that we will be experiencing similar situations every summer, even more so at a time when a significant number of local government authorities are all engaged and working to ensure a successful tourist season.

Unquestionably, this season has recorded some very positive improvements, in terms of the rate of improvement, primarily as a result of your commitment to cleaning the coastline.

The municipality of Himare has set a fine example in this respect.

A consolidated health service is already in place. The number of medical check-ups and care services provided across the specifically established healthcare system to cope with the tourist season has increased significantly as a result of awareness and the performance of the whole healthcare system. And the Minister of Health and Social Welfare should definitely be credited for. Likewise, public order and security seem to be at a higher level than every other year and the police officers deployed to ensure public order, security and safety are actually doing a great job.

We still face some minor problems regarding the acoustic pollution. However, forest fires are a serious issue and the main reason we have come together today, because it can’t be tackled by the Ministry of Defence and the Civil Emergencies Agency alone.

Under this year’s state budget, the government has allocated an amount of one billion lek for the Civil Protection.

This is to affirm that in addition to steadily increasing the support for the Civil Protection each year, we have also enhanced our capacities and the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior capacities that are available to this front.

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I believe we all clearly know the fact that prevention and initial response are directly a responsibility of the local government. The local government is also responsible for establishing teams of volunteers. The whole world operates through a network of volunteers when it comes to civil emergencies. This is the case with neighbouring Italy that has a system of excellence in terms of civil protection from natural disasters and has the widest and most extensive network of volunteers in the depth of the territory.

As the Minister rightly noted there are wildfires and forest fires that local government bodies are unable to cope with as such natural phenomena exceed their capacities and resources for 1001 reasons, yet facts show that many of these fires were prevented and neutralized thanks to this first response from the local bodies and crews.

We need to be prepared in advance as it is impossible to extinguish 300 forest fires even if you were to use 300 helicopters. The world powers do not rely on the number of vehicles and helicopters they deploy in the fight against natural disasters. This is the reason why the European Union has built a mechanism and it has built it for its member states and not for us.

France and Germany have built a joint system to use their respective vehicles, aircraft and resources in case of wildfires and the aircrafts currently being sent to extinguish forest fires in Albania are indeed part of our efforts and hard work to join such a mechanism and the respect we have earned, because making available an aircraft from the EU was out of questions previously.

Thank you!

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Defence Minister noted that a number of blazes remain active, yet they are fully under control and they pose no threat to residential areas.

“Forest fires remain active across the country, but they are totally under control and pose no threat to the residential areas. In addition to helicopters intervening in the blazes, troops and civil defence crews are working on the ground to completely extinguish forest fires,” Peleshi said.

However – he noted – “role of the local government in informing and time reacting is essential.”

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In a statement to the media, National Agency for Civil Protection expressed grateful thanks to the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, USAID, the Kosovo KSF and all the on-site teams for the support provided to fight fire day and night.

​ Firefighting helicopters with a crew of 50 people from the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, made available through European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, arrived in Albania 4 days ago to support Albanian teams to fight the forest fires. //a.i/

Two helicopters to support operations in Albania will be equally dispatched from Czechia and the Netherlands.

All help is mobilised through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, with co-funding by the Commission of at least 75 % of transport costs.

Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said: “We are working around the clock to send help as fires rage across Europe. I thank Cyprus, Czechia, France, Slovenia and the Netherlands for swiftly deploying firefighting airplanes, helicopters and a team of firefighters to support countries heavily affected by forest fires. At this time as several Mediterranean countries are facing fires, EU Civil Protection makes sure that our firefighting tools in place are used at maximum capacity. This is an excellent example of EU solidarity in times of need.”

These deployments come in addition to EU-coordinated firefighting operations that are currently ongoing in Turkey, as well as in Sardinia, Italy at the end of July. Satellite maps from the EU’s Copernicus Emergency Management satellite are providing further support to the emergency services to coordinate the operations.

The European Union’s 24/7 Emergency Response Coordination Centre is in constant contact with the civil protection authorities of countries affected by the fires to closely monitor the situation and channel EU assistance. //a.i/

“Our prayers are with those affected by the forest fires in Albania. The United States has and will always stand with Albania in times of need. This video shows U.S donated equipment being used by the brave men and women of the Albanian Armed Forces as they fight fires in the south. The equipment is part of a $360,000 donation of firefighting equipment by U.S. European Command (EUCOM) in 2019. They included “Bambi buckets”, firefighting suits, axes, shovels, and personal protective equipment. The “Bambi buckets,” used in this video, hold water via helicopters and allow them to fill large amounts quickly in order to extinguish the wildfire,” the US Embassy said. //a.i/