Eurostat: Cyprus spending on fire protection down by 4.2%

General government expenditure in Cyprus on fire protection services amounted to €34.5 million in 2021, representing a 4.2% decrease compared to €36 million in 2020, while there was a 2.5% increase overall in the EU from €33.3 billion to €34.1 billion, according to data released by Eurostat.

Meanwhile, expenditures for fire protection in Cyprus dropped by 20% between 2011 and 2021, according to the same figures.

The share of fire protection expenditure over the general government total expenditure was 0.3% in Cyprus and 0.5% in the EU.

Overall in the EU, government expenditure on fire protection services as a share of overall total expenditure remained stable at around 0.4 - 0.5% since the beginning of the time series in 2001.

In Cyprus, fire protection spending as a percentage of government expenditure remained generally stable. This percentage stood at 0.5% between 2001 and 2013, dropped to 0.3% in 2014, and returned to 0.4% between 2015 and 2020.

Among member states in 2021, Denmark reported the lowest share of expenditure on fire protection services in total expenditure at 0.1%, followed by Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Portugal and Slovenia, all with 0.3%.

Lithuania and Romania had the highest share of expenditure on fire protection services with 0.7% of total expenditure, followed by Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, Greece, and Luxembourg (0.6%).

Since 2011 and in the space of a decade, most EU countries increased their total expenditure as well as their expenditure on fire protection services.

Luxembourg registered the highest increases in expenditure on fire protection services (+387%).

Three EU countries decreased their spending on fire protection services in 2021 as compared to a decade earlier: Cyprus (-20%), Denmark (-17%) and Croatia (-14%).

(Source: CNA)