Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - Saxony-Anhalt's forestry minister, Sven Schulze (CDU), wrote an open letter to the head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In it he confirmed his desire for a base for the EU-wide firefighting aircraft fleet in Germany, said a spokeswoman for the ministry on Thursday. "This would make it easier to fight fires from the air (...) throughout Central and Northern Europe, forests would be better protected and operations could be more resource-efficient," the letter says.
If Europe decides to expand the season, it would be appropriate to think about creating such a base in Germany, the CDU politician recently told the German Press Agency. According to the former MEP, appropriate discussions should at least be held at EU level. Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) had already called for the squadron to be expanded last week.
In view of the recent forest fire in the Harz National Park, Schulze considers the current system to be basically good. "It's important for us that the planes are available quickly," he said. "And they did. We requested them on Sunday morning and they landed at the airport in Braunschweig on Sunday evening." The next day they flew the first fire-fighting mission in the Harz Mountains. Most recently, it had burned there on an area of around 160 hectares. This was the second forest fire in just a few weeks.
