Media: EU wildfire strategy falls short amid another devastating season

The European Commission’s wildfire strategy, introduced in March, has yet to produce tangible results as Spain and France confront massive evacuations and thousands of hectares of land have already been destroyed by fires, Euronews reports.

The report said disagreements among EU member states have slowed efforts to introduce stronger forest management measures.

The Commission’s long-awaited wildfire strategy was presented in March as a major change in direction, shifting the focus from responding to fires after they start toward preventing them before they spread.

Four months later, however, Spain and France are experiencing some of their most severe wildfire outbreaks in recent years, highlighting the gap between Brussels’ commitments and the limited action taken on the ground.

As fires continue sweeping through southern Europe, the Commission is facing mounting criticism over whether its pledge to prioritise prevention over emergency firefighting came too late to have an impact on this year’s crisis.

The March strategy marked a significant change in the EU’s approach. Instead of relying primarily on firefighting aircraft, emergency crews and rapid deployments, Brussels acknowledged that Europe had become locked into an expensive cycle of fighting increasingly destructive fires rather than addressing the conditions that allow them to spread.

Despite that shift in policy, much of the Commission’s wildfire plan remains unimplemented, with several key initiatives still awaiting action.

The EU executive identified decades of abandoned farmland, neglected forests, prolonged droughts and rising temperatures as factors that have created huge areas of highly flammable vegetation, including pine and eucalyptus forests. Its proposed response was to manage these landscapes before they become fuel for fires.

The strategy included financial incentives for farmers and forest managers to reduce forest density, allow livestock grazing and restore abandoned agricultural areas. It also proposed restoring wetlands, peatlands and floodplains to preserve water levels and naturally slow wildfire expansion.

However, these long-term measures cannot reduce the threat posed by the fires already burning this summer.

Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels on May 26 that the Commission did “not plan any new initiatives on forest management” and did “not plan any additional indicators or guidelines at this point.”

As a result, European countries have returned to the emergency measures that the Commission itself previously warned were insufficient: deploying rescEU firefighting aircraft, sending cross-border firefighting teams and activating civil protection resources as individual countries seek assistance.

A major weakness in Europe’s wildfire policy remains unchanged — political attention and financial resources usually increase after devastating fires occur, while prevention requires years of continuous investment before its effects become visible.

The Commission acknowledged that wildfire prevention has historically received far less attention than emergency response. Its March strategy effectively admitted that Europe had been addressing the consequences of worsening fires rather than tackling their underlying causes.

However, many of the proposed solutions rely heavily on national governments rather than EU institutions.

Forest management, land-use planning and civil protection largely remain responsibilities of individual member states, while much of the funding for preventive measures would depend on EU agricultural programs and future budget decisions.

The Commission can provide financial support, coordination and guidance, but implementation ultimately depends on governments, regional authorities, farmers and landowners.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov