A legislative proposal currently under consideration in parliament calls for the creation of an independent technical commission to conduct a “comprehensive and factual review of the rural fire campaign of August 2025,” comparing it with previous years, particularly 2018-2024.
The establishment of the independent commission, announced by the leader of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luís Carneiro, on August 15, has been favorably received by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), according to statements this week from its parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares.
The PS aims “to identify the causes of the operational failure, evaluate the effectiveness of current public policies, and produce a final report with concrete, urgent, and long-term recommendations to strengthen the forest fire defense model.”
“This model, established with parliamentary consensus in 2017, provided an impartial assessment focusing on the causes of fires and combat strategies, which significantly aided with its recommendations in developing new responses to the challenges posed by forest fires. This particularly negative and concerning reality of 2025 justifies revisiting this formula,” the Socialists explained.
The PS proposal suggests this commission be composed of “12 national and international experts of recognized merit, with expertise in civil protection, forest fire prevention and combat, climate sciences, forest planning, communications, and risk analysis.”
Given the Socialists’ objective for a “swift analysis” of the August fires, it is proposed that the commission’s term be “60 days from its establishment, extendable by another 30 days until the completion of its work.”
The PS desires a commission report by the end of its term, which “should contain their findings and specific, scheduled recommendations with defined responsible entities deemed pertinent for future prevention.”
This report is to be submitted to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, “who will ensure its publication in the Diário da Assembleia da República and its posting on the Assembly of the Republic’s website.”
The PS intends for this commission to evaluate the initial conditions and context of the 2025 fires, examining, for instance, “meteorological realities and fuel management measures,” alongside “the effectiveness of the fire-fighting setup” regarding human resources and aerial means availability, as well as “prevention and communication policies, command structure realities, and the operational response to major occurrences.”
“The technical work of the Independent Technical Commission will naturally not exhaust the assessment of ongoing public policies. In the context of public and parliamentary debate expected on the matter, it will be particularly relevant to determine if the current and previous AD Governments ensured the implementation of public policies introduced since 2018, following the evaluation that innovated and reinforced the response to forest fires in terms of prevention,” it anticipates.
The PS seeks to understand “why the legal framework approved at the last Council of Ministers of the António Costa Government, which reformed rural property in Portugal, was not implemented.”
