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

Citizens across Europe are increasingly experiencing the consequences of the climate crisis through extreme weather events and natural disasters. In response, the EU has developed "reinsurance policies" (Freudlsperger 2025) such as the "rescEU" programme to assist member states in stemming climate-induced disasters, positioning itself as their insurer of last resort. This article investigates the effect that this form of practical solidarity has on citizens' support for European integration. Contrary to the prevailing conceptualization of EU solidarity as an outcome variable, we thus advance the literature by analysing it as an independent variable that affects EU support by providing transnational reinsurance in case national governments are overwhelmed. Furthermore, we assess the potential spillover effects from the European to the national level by also estimating the impact of rescEU assistance on support for the national government. Empirically, 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 receiving assistance on national and EU support. Our findings will reveal whether citizens perceive European solidarity policies as a win-win for the national and European level, or more in terms of a zero-sum game.