Wildfires have so far ravaged more than one million hectares (2.5 million acres) in the European Union in 2025, a record since statistics began in 2006, according to an AFP analysis of data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

Surpassing the annual record of 988,524 hectares burnt in 2017, the figure reached 1,015,731 hectares by midday Thursday, representing an area larger than Cyprus.

This calculation is based on a total compiled by AFP from estimates by country by EFFIS, at a time when Spain and Portugal are still battling wildfires.

Four countries in the European Union -- Spain, Cyprus, Germany, and Slovakia -- have already experienced their worst year in two decades of existing data.

Spain is struggling with numerous fires in the west of the country, which hav

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