diff --git a/src/eccodes/CMakeLists.txt b/src/eccodes/CMakeLists.txt
index 23db9d86b6..03787c65b7 100644
--- a/src/eccodes/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/eccodes/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -447,7 +447,7 @@ ecbuild_add_library(
        ${ECCODES_EXTRA_LIBRARIES}
        ${CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT}
        ${PNG_LIBRARIES}
-       $<$<BOOL:${libaec_FOUND}>:libaec::aec>
+       $<$<BOOL:${ENABLE_AEC}>:libaec::aec>
     PUBLIC_LIBS 
         ${CMATH_LIBRARIES}
         ${THREADS_LIBRARIES}