Parliamentary questions   P-001719/2022 to the Commission

Sara Skyttedal (PPE)

Subject: New EU framework for forest monitoring and strategic plans

In April 2022, the Commission announced a potential new framework for the harmonisation of forest monitoring linked to the new EU forest strategy for 2030. In its initial impact assessment, the Commission states that the aim of the framework is to ‘improve forest monitoring by providing timely, validated, interoperable and freely accessible data and information across the EU.’ It also says that the framework will ‘lead to more data?driven decision?making on forests’.

In the light of the above, I would like to ask the Commission the following questions:

1. Since many Member States already monitor their forests, how will it prevent the duplication of statistics and additional unnecessary labour costs?

2. Since the EU is geographically diverse, how will it ensure that its harmonised method for data collection recognises all distinct geographical features in the EU?

3. How will it protect sensitive information that might, for instance, expose Member States’ security structures if the framework does indeed allow for the provision of‘freely accessible data’ on EU forests?