In 2026, more territory burned in Spain than the combined area of the cities of Madrid, Berlin and Rome.

Omissions

• No source retrieved in this verification states the combined area of the three cities explicitly; the comparison relies on the commonly cited municipal areas of Madrid (~604 km²), Berlin (~892 km²) and Rome (~1,285 km²), which sum to roughly 2,780 km², i.e. slightly below the ~2,960 km² burned in Spain.
• The claim's validity depends on interpreting 'Madrid' as the municipality. The Community of Madrid alone covers about 8,028 km², far exceeding the 2026 burned area, so under that reading the comparison would be false.
• The burned-area figures are drawn from EFFIS/Copernicus and relayed by secondary media; the primary EFFIS dataset page for Spain in 2026 was not directly retrieved with a specific 2026 value.
• Some sources were published after the 15 September 2026 session date (e.g. the 17 September 2026 article citing data to 16 September), although figures to early/mid-September 2026 were substantially available to the MEP at the time of the sitting.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Commission – Joint Research Centre (EFFIS)As of 16 September 2026, the area affected by fires has reached 668,035 hectares [in Europe], below the area recorded by the same date in 2025.
• SecondaryGaceta.esSpain accumulated 296,815 hectares burned by wildfires between 1 January and 16 September 2026, an area representing 44.4% of all burned land in the EU.
• SecondaryCadena Cinco296,502 hectares burned in Spain up to 9 September 2026, the cumulative result of 478 major fires registered that year.
• SecondaryMoncloa.comSpain recorded 295,720 hectares burned by wildfires between 1 January and 2 September 2026, according to the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), representing 45.6% of the 647,375 hectares burned across the EU in the same period.
• SecondaryEuropa Press – epdata (forest fire data)Spain registered up to 9 August 2026 a total of 42 major forest fires and 201,168 hectares burned in 2026, figures higher than those of the previous year.