Extreme droogte teistert Zuid-Europa (en)

Western and Southern Europe are currently facing severe drought, with the situation being the gravest in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece.

Spain and Portugal are suffering their worst droughts since the launch of record-keeping in the 1940s.

EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel will start a two-day visit to Portugal today (20 July) to evaluate the damage caused by the drought to the country's agriculture.

Brush fires have already destroyed more than three times the average annual loss for Portugal in the first half of this year, according to the BBC.

In Spain, a forest blaze killed 11 fire-fighters on Monday, and on the same day in France president Jacques Chirac called for vigilance and efforts from "each person... to limit the excessive use of water".

However, "there is no concern at the national level for the moment", the French president was reported as saying by Le Monde.

And as temperatures threatened to rise above 30°C in some parts of France during the weekend, health minister Xavier Bertrand released funds of €26 million under a plan to help protect the elderly from the effects of the heat.

In 2003, high summer temperatures (consistently around 40°C) killed 15,000 people, most of whom were elderly, in France.

Greece is also going through a heat wave at the moment, with temperatures expected to reach 40°C today in some parts of the country, and 38°C in the capital Athens.

It is not clear whether the drought is due to climate change, but it is a fact that Europe is 0.95°C hotter now than it was in 1900, and experts foresee a further rise of 2 to 6.3°C by 2100, writes Le Monde.

Due to the drought in western Europe, cereal production in the EU in 2005 will be at least 28 million tonnes below last year's, which is a drop of about 10 percent, the European Commission announced on Friday.

Floods in the Northern Balkans

Meanwhile, Bulgaria and Romania are being swept by floods, which have already killed 20 people and inundated tens of thousands of homes in both countries over the last two weeks.

More than 12,000 were forced to evacuate their homes in Romania, where at least 15 people have died in the floods.

In Bulgaria, five people have been killed and at least 50,000 homes and buildings were destroyed across the country, Sofia News Agency reports.

Both Balkan countries have called on the EU to help them recover, and the bloc has recently announced it would do so through its solidarity fund, according to the agency.