A report published on Thursday by the Commission indicates that last year the European Forest Fire Information System registered 86 fires in Portugal, for a total of 37,357 hectares burnt.

"Although Portugal was once again the country with the largest burnt area, the total area was only a small fraction of the burnt area in 2017 and one of the lowest totals in the last ten years," the EU executive said in a statement.

According to the report, in 2018, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism was activated five times to tackle forest fires in Europe: in Portugal, Sweden, Greece and Latvia.

Last summer, 15 planes, six helicopters and more than 400 firefighters were deployed, with the EU paying €1.6 million in transport costs to the affected countries.

Brussels has also sent forest fire experts from across the EU to Portugal on a prevention and preparedness mission.

According to the European Commission, 2018 was the year in which the European Forest Fire Information System recorded the largest number of major forest fires.

In all, last year, forest fires destroyed some 178,000 hectares of forest and land in the EU.

In the document, the European Commission also noted that Sweden faced the worst fire season in the country's entire history in 2018, having registered the second-largest burnt area in the EU - 21,605 hectares burnt in 74 fires - a situation unusual for a northern country.

This situation has created conditions that have contributed to the ignition and spread of forest fires, causing high economic and environmental losses, the European Commission said.

One of these consequences was the fact that the ecosystems of the Natura 2000 network, which are home to threatened plant and animal species, lost 50,000 hectares in fires, equivalent to 36% of the total area burnt in 2018, the Commission said.

The annual report on forest fires also stated that this year the fire season started earlier due to dry and windy conditions and high temperatures, with the occurrences recorded in March being higher than the average for a whole year in the last decade.