Already 1,000 wildfires were registered in Europe in 2026, almost twice the average of recent decades.
65% confidence
EnvironmentEurope
Omissions
The figure that most directly corroborates the claim (about 1,200 fires registered in the EU in 2026, more than double the annual average) comes from an Euronews report published on 30 July 2026, i.e. after the session date of 8 July 2026; the MEP could not have known that exact end-of-July count, though the ~1,000 figure he cited for early July is consistent with it as a cumulative count.
The exact number of fires registered as of 8 July 2026 could not be verified directly from the primary EFFIS/Joint Research Centre database in this search; verification rests on a single independent secondary source (Euronews citing EFFIS) plus contextual confirmation from Carbon Brief and Bayerischer Rundfunk that 2026 was a severe wildfire year in Europe.
Minor scope ambiguity: the claim says 'Europe' while the corroborating source refers to the EU (EFFIS statistics cover EU member states); the two are close but not identical in coverage.