In November 2024, the European Commission presented its proposal for a “regulation on a monitoring framework for resilient European forests”, i.e. the Forest Monitoring proposal.
In the European Parliament, the file is handled by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (ComAGRI) and the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ComENVI) under the joint committee procedure. Following the EU election of June 2024, MEP Eric Sargiacomo (S&D, FR) and MEP Emma Wiesner (Renew, SE) and were appointed as co-rapporteurs, respectively on behalf of ComAGRI and ComENVI. The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ComITRE) decided not to give an opinion on this file, no other Committee is involved for opinion.
After exchanging with experts during the joint public Hearing organised by ComAGRI and ComENVI on 13 January 2025, the co-rapporteurs presented their draft report on 18 February. The draft report of the co-rapporteurs, consisting of 158 amendments to the European Commission proposal, was debated in a joint meeting of ComENVI and ComAGRI. The co-rapporteurs stressed that their amendments aimed to render the proposal more fitted to the reality of the approaches to forest monitoring, and that they want to prioritise the use of national expertise, as well as to ensure alignment of the proposal with existing legal frameworks.
Among others, they highlighted the importance of building on existing National Forest Inventories (NFIs), which have provided valuable data and insights over the years, propose a decentralized approach to foster cooperation and trust, ensuring the European system complements national efforts.
In addition to direct reaction during the draft report presentation, Members of ComAGRI and ComENVI were then given the opportunity to table further amendments to the European Commission’s proposal. On 20 March, of ComAGRI and ComENVI’s MEPs conveyed again to discuss the 1330 amendments that had been tabled. The discussion provided for the very different views to be expressed, from the simple call of the rejection of the proposal, to request for its further expansion.
The work on the creation of compromises amendments (CAs) has therefore started under and the co-rapporteurs aim to present and vote on CAs in a joint meeting of ComAGRI and Com ENVI in June 2025.
In parallel, Member States continue to discuss on this proposal in the Council for elaborating their position, currently under the guidance of the Polish Presidency.
CEPF trust that the co-legislators will duly take into consideration the questions and concerns raised by European forest owners.
