(1)

Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (2) defines the legal framework of rescEU. rescEU aims to provide assistance in overwhelming situations where overall existing capacities at national level and those pre-committed by Member States to the European Civil Protection Pool are not able to ensure an effective response.

(2)

With rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, the risk of wildfires in the Union is increasing and the wildfires are becoming more frequent and more intense. The limited availability of specialised response capacities, including amphibious aerial forest firefighting capacities, remains a major concern and constitutes the Union’s main operational challenge when confronting simultaneous wildfires.

(3)

In view of the necessary flexibility that has been afforded by the transitional period provided for in Decision No 1313/2013/EU to ensure a smooth transition towards the full implementation of rescEU, it is critical to extend that transitional period until 31 December 2027 to ensure that the Union can secure additional aerial rescEU capacities under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism while the permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet is gradually being established.

(4)

Since the objective of this Decision, namely to ensure that the Union can continue to provide support to Member States in fighting wildfires until a permanent European aerial forest firefighting fleet is established, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(5)

Decision No 1313/2013/EU should therefore be amended accordingly,