The year 2025 went down in history as the most destructive forest fire season in the European Union. Satellite analyses from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), which has been managed for a long time by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, bring alarming and unprecedented statistics. According to an official report of 31 March 2026, the flames devastated within the EU Member States over the past year 1,079,538 hectares of land, which represents an area comparable to the size of the island of Cyprus. If we add to this statistic other monitored areas in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the total burned area rises to an incredible 2,242,195 hectares.

Extreme season and impact of heat The 2025 crisis was marked by an exceptionally early onset. By the end of March, more than 100,000 hectares had already burned across the EU, highlighting the country's extreme vulnerability after the winter months. The intensity of the fires gradually increased from June and It reached its dramatic peak in August due to a prolonged heat wave. During the first three weeks of August, 22 very large fires broke out in Portugal and Spain almost simultaneously. In the Iberian Peninsula alone, 460,585 hectares burned, representing 43% of the total area burned in the EU for the year.

Damage across Member States and nature protection The fire element affected almost the entire Union without exception. The EFFIS system mapped a total of 7,783 forest fires in 25 of the 27 EU Member States. Only Luxembourg and Malta managed to avoid the flames. This is the highest ever value of the affected area in the EU27 since 2006, and this figure represents almost double the long-term average from 2006 to 2024. Countries such as Germany, Spain, Cyprus and also Slovakia recorded their own historical records in terms of the extent of burned area this year.

The negative impact on the Natura 2000 network of protected areas was particularly worrying. The proportion of burned area in these important ecological sites reached approximately 39 %, bringing the total destroyed area of these precious areas to 424,023 hectares.

The situation beyond the Union's borders and changing trends The crisis was not limited to the territory of the Member States. In non-EU European countries, fires destroyed 1,092,095 hectares and a further 70,562 hectares burned in the Middle East and North Africa. Outside the EU, Ukraine was the most affected country, accounting for almost 30 % of the total mapped burned area and 39 % of all recorded fires in the assessed area.

Overall, the 2025 season confirmed a clear and dangerous trend: earlier onset of fire seasons, significantly more frequent and intense heat waves, as well as the spread of destructive fires to higher latitudes than has been historically common.

European strategy, prevention and rescue fleet The European Commission responded to these developments on 25 March 2026 by adopting a new integrated approach to forest fire risk management, systematically covering prevention, preparedness, immediate response and subsequent recovery of the landscape. One of the pillars remains the EFFIS system, integrated into the Copernicus service, which can provide near-real-time warnings thanks to satellites from European and international space agencies. This system is also actively supported by the Forest Fire Expert Group, a network of 43 countries for the exchange of data and practices.

In addition, the Commission is continuously strengthening the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), which brings together the resources of the 27 Member States and 10 Participating States. Firefighters are strategically deployed in high-risk locations every summer and the rescEU fleet is maintained. For long-term crisis management, the Commission has allocated extensive funding for the purchase of 12 new firefighting aircraft and 5 helicopters. The helicopters will find their permanent base directly in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania, while the aircraft will be located in the countries of southern Europe and France. While the first helicopter was already delivered earlier this year, the aircraft will begin to replenish the fleet from 2028. JRi&CO2AI