The European Commission’s long-awaited wildfire strategy, unveiled in March, was presented as a major shift in approach: moving away from simply fighting fires once they break out towards prioritising prevention measures.
Four months later, Spain and France are facing one of their worst wildfire seasons in years, exposing the gap between Brussels' ambitions and the limited progress made on the ground.
As flames spread across southern Europe, the Commission is facing growing scrutiny over whether its promise to put wildfire prevention ahead of emergency response came too late to make any difference this summer.
The strategy unveiled in March marked a significant change in thinking — instead of relying primarily on aircraft, firefighters and emergency deployments, Brussels acknowledged that the European Union had become trapped in a costly cycle of extinguishing increasingly intense fires rather than preventing them.
However, much of the EU executive’s wildfire strategy remains on paper, with key measures still awaiting implementation.
