diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5adc81a7e..4e22033cb 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -115,6 +115,9 @@ ecbuild_add_option( FEATURE NETCDF
     NO_TPL )
 
 find_package( AEC )
+if(NOT DEFINED ENABLE_AEC AND NOT AEC_FOUND)
+  ecbuild_critical("AEC support is highly recommended from ecCodes >= 2.25.0\nTo force build without it use -DENABLE_AEC=OFF")
+endif()
 ecbuild_add_option( FEATURE AEC
     DESCRIPTION "Support for Adaptive Entropy Coding"
     DEFAULT ON