On the agenda: Natural disasters, European Council, College of Commissioners’ minutes.

On the podium: Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas.

Natural disasters: As Spain and Portugal have battled deadly wildfires in recent days, Schinas said Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called on officials to look into how the EU deals with natural disasters. Juncker asked Chrístos Stylianídis, Günther Oettinger and Corina Crețu — the commissioners for crisis management, budget and regional policy, respectively — to work on ways to improve the EU’s civil protection mechanism, which coordinates EU natural disaster efforts. Schinas said as long as responding to natural disasters remains a national responsibility, the Commission will be in charge of boosting coordination efforts. The spokesman added that commissioners will hold a follow-up discussion on what the Commission can do “very soon.” In recent years, natural disasters have become the “new normal,” Schinas said, referring to earthquakes in Italy, the wildfires in Spain and Portugal, and floods in Northern Europe.

Tusk’s letter and post-Brexit summit: Schinas said Juncker is “satisfied” with the letter sent by President of the European Council Donald Tusk to EU leaders Tuesday about the Union’s future. The spokesman said what Tusk proposed reflects “the content and our proposals made in [Juncker’s] State of the Union speech.” Schinas also denied that Tusk had snubbed Juncker on the scheduling of the first EU27 summit after Brexit in 2019. In the letter to EU leaders, Tusk rescheduled a special post-Brexit summit called for by Juncker. Schinas said the main point of this meeting will be “to have a moment” for the 27 remaining leaders to confirm their EU commitments before the next European Parliament election, expected in the late spring of 2019.

Commission minutes: Schinas also did not give an explanation as to why the Commission has yet not published official minutes from the recent College of Commissioners meeting. On Wednesday afternoon, the last minutes available online were from the meeting on September 12, although commissioners had continued to approve minutes from subsequent meetings, according to the College of Commissioners’ recent agendas. Schinas said “the frequency is not written in stone” as to when minutes are published.