International Solidarity in Action: How Firefighting Planes from the RescEU Reserve Spark EU Support

Citizens across Europe are increasingly experiencing the consequences of climate change through extreme weather events and natural disasters. In response, the EU has developed solidarity policies such as the Civil Protection Mechanism and rescEU programme to assist member states in managing these transboundary risks, positioning itself as an insurer of last resort. This article investigates the impact of these instruments on citizens’ EU support during natural disasters and extreme weather events caused by climate change. Contrary to the prevailing conceptualization of solidarity as an outcome variable, we advance the literature by analysing solidarity as an independent variable that may influence European support. We thereby challenge the dominant narrative that national attitudes are the primary predictor of European support and investigate how European crisis responses are seen by the public. Furthermore, we assess potential spillover effects from the European to the national level by estimating the impact of EU aid on national support. We conduct a cross-sectional difference-in-difference analysis, combining geolocated natural disaster data with Eurobarometer data. Additionally, we run a survey experiment across five European countries to identify the causal effects of solidarity policies on national and EU support. Our findings will reveal the benefits and pitfalls of European solidarity mechanisms for multilevel support in one of the greatest crises of our time.