diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index aad8c8b87..726da23ee 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -116,7 +116,10 @@ ecbuild_add_option( FEATURE NETCDF
 
 find_package( AEC )
 if(NOT DEFINED ENABLE_AEC AND NOT AEC_FOUND)
-  ecbuild_critical("AEC (Adaptive Entropy Coding) support is highly recommended from ecCodes >= 2.25.0\nTo force the build without it, use -DENABLE_AEC=OFF")
+  ecbuild_critical("AEC library was not found.\n"
+                   "AEC (Adaptive Entropy Coding) provides the WMO GRIB CCSDS compression and decompression of data. "
+                   "This is highly recommended from ecCodes >= 2.25.0"
+                   "\nTo force the build without it, use -DENABLE_AEC=OFF")
 endif()
 ecbuild_add_option( FEATURE AEC
     DESCRIPTION "Support for Adaptive Entropy Coding"