More than a million hectares of EU forest burned this year by the end of August, according to data provided by the Copernicus satellite, used for Earth observation. This is almost five times larger than the area affected by forest fires in the EU the previous year.  The most affected member states were Portugal with 3% of territory burned, Cyprus with 2,3% and Spain with 0,8%.  In recent years, the European Commission has positioned standby teams managed by the Emergency Response Coordination Center, to assist member states. In 2025, a pool of 22 planes and 650 firefighters was made available by 14 member states.    “The goal here is to…