The infernos consuming thousands of hectares in Galicia, Andalusia, and Castilla-La Mancha are not merely the product of human negligence, drought, and extreme heat. They also result from poor governance and a lack of foresight—failings that European institutions had already highlighted.
On June 11th, just weeks before the fire season began, the European Court of Auditors issued a damning report pointing to serious deficiencies in wildfire prevention in the member states most at risk—Spain, Portugal, and Greece.
The auditors were blunt: several Spanish regional governments continue to rely on an “obsolete” risk-assessment system, even though EU rules have changed. That reliance is far from harmless. Outdated criteria distort the allocation of EU funds and lead to projects that fail to address the land’s real vulnerabilities. As the report warned, European aid “may not be channelled towards the projects that best respond to forest fire protection needs.”
The Court stressed that member states—Spain in particular—pour disproportionate resources into firefighting while underinvesting in prevention. It noted that abandoned farmland and unmanaged woodland are fuelling today’s fires. Brussels urged governments to prioritise firebreaks, clearing, and maintenance. Yet in Galicia, where legislation requires firebreaks to be maintained every three years, only a third were scheduled for work in 2024. The auditors observed that climate regulations and red tape heavily obstruct basic land management.
In Spain, even clearing brush from rural paths requires permits. The report suggests that such bureaucracy undermines any rapid or effective response and has, in practice, limited the use of EU funds for essential projects.
The comparison with neighbours is stark. Greece, three times smaller than Spain, channelled €837 million from the Recovery and Resilience Facility into fire prevention. Portugal allocated €615 million. Spain, by contrast, spent just €221 million—only €40 million of which reached Galicia, Andalusia, and Castilla-La Mancha. A paltry figure for a country that, according to the EU’s Copernicus system, has already lost more forest area this year than the bloc’s average annual total.
The report also flagged duplication in contracts awarded by the central government and regional administrations to the state-owned company Tragsa. Between 2021 and 2022 alone, 242 contracts worth €248 million were signed, many overlapping. The result: unnecessary costs, fragmented action, and inefficiency in the field. The auditors urged Madrid to consolidate procurement and improve coordination. The Ministry for Ecological Transition rejected the recommendation.
The fires devastating Spain today cannot be dismissed as an unavoidable natural disaster. Brussels had spelt it out: update risk assessments, invest in prevention, and coordinate resources. None of this was done. Instead, Madrid stuck to a fragmented model, banking on firefighting capacity while neglecting the structural causes.
The price is catastrophic: thousands of hectares destroyed, an economic burden the Court estimates at more than €2 billion annually, and, most tragically, lives lost. Spain’s decentralised governance model has failed, with malpractice costing vast resources and human and animal lives.
