Vidigueira, Portugal, July 7, 2026 (Lusa) – Portugal’s minister for Internal Affairs, Luís Neves, said on Tuesday that Portugal had requested the European Civil Protection Mechanism because it was necessary and Brussels had approved it, due to the risk of wildfires.
“The prime minister was very clear. This government’s policy is one of anticipation and proactivity. If, here and there, we have erred on the side of caution, it is for preventative reasons,” he said, speaking to journalists in Vidigueira, in the district of Beja.
According to Luís Neves, given the recent fires and the extreme temperatures across the country, the government maintained a measured approach when it requested the activation of the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
“That was not the case, and I would say that the European Commission approves the European Civil Protection Mechanism only on the basis of strict criteria involving various factors and evidence. And that is why the Commission approved it at the very first attempt,” he said.
When questioned by the Lusa news agency about previous years, in which this mechanism was only activated later in the fire season, when the country’s resources were fully utilised, which is not the case now, He insisted that the aim was to achieve “a balance of resources”.
“As the whole country was in this situation, and we could well have faced major fires,” it was necessary to “have the whole country covered,” because the country was “under a blanket of danger.”
The minister emphasised that the only reason there had been no major fires was “because the firefighters have done an absolutely extraordinary, indeed remarkable, job” in the initial response to the blazes, managing to tackle 95% of them, he said, thanking the firefighters from the various brigades.
The minister also stressed that “the government needed to allocate resources strategically across the country” and that, for this reason, it was necessary to call upon the European Civil Protection Mechanism, which “always responds according to very strict criteria”.
“The criteria in Brussels were deemed acceptable straight away, without any doubt, and this therefore means that we were on the right track, just as we are on the right track now,” he said.
On Friday, the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, announced that Portugal had activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism and bilateral agreements with Spain and Morocco to bolster its firefighting capabilities.
The rescEU network forms part of the European mechanism, acting as a strategic reserve of resources to respond to emergency situations, which the European instrument coordinates when a country requests assistance.
During his visit to Vidigueira, where the town hall received him, and he subsequently visited the local GNR police barracks, the minister spoke to journalists about the more than 15,000 hectares of land burnt in the country over the past five days, as he had already addressed earlier that morning during his visit to Castro Verde, also in the district of Beja.
“Despite the 15,000 hectares, which is a great deal, and is terrible in terms of natural wealth, the biosphere and the climate, the information we had was that a disaster could have occurred, given the combination of the terrain and the weather conditions,” which ultimately did not happen, he pointed out.
However, he noted, the fire season will require coordination, teamwork and the active involvement of citizens, with everyone remaining vigilant and behaving responsibly.
Describing himself as “the foremost defender of private property”, Luís Neves said that, in certain exceptional situations, “this right must remain intact in the defence of a greater good”, adding that “this greater good is the forest, people’s lives, jobs, homes and businesses. And all of this must be defended”.
RRL/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
