European Court of Auditors. Special report 16/2025: EU funding to tackle forest fires – More preventive measures, but insufficient evidence of results and their long-term sustainability.

Over a thousand large forest fires occur every year in the EU, burning more than 350 000 hectares per year on average. We assessed how the Commission and member states used EU funding to address forest fire prevention, preparedness, and restoration in the EU. We found that the Commission had an incomplete overview of the amount of EU support spent on forest‑fire-related measures and results achieved. The member states increased their use of EU funding for forest fire prevention, though the long-term sustainability of the results was not always ensured. We recommend that the Commission (i) promote good project‑selection practices and (ii) assess the results and disseminate information on effective actions.