MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – The poor state of biodiversity and the paucity of data when it comes to evaluating the objectives of the European Green Deal – E-000721/2025(ASW)

In line with Regulation (EC) No 401/2009[1], the European Environment Agency (EEA) is responsible for supporting Member States’ reporting and for providing objective, reliable and comparable information to the Commission for the design, implementation and assessment of environmental and climate policies.

The EEA is actively engaged with the Commission on improving the process and infrastructure to collect data, which will contribute to the simplification agenda.

The Commission is taking steps to tackle data gaps in the context of new EU legislation as well as projects and initiatives to rationalise data campaigns[2].

The GreenData4All[3] initiative aims to improve environmental data sharing in support of evidence-based decision-making . The use of Earth observation, through Copernicus[4] and EU space programme[5], opens up further unprecedented opportunities for enhanced biodiversity monitoring.

The Commission will also coordinate the implementation of the European Parliament’s preparatory action for the development and deployment of an EU Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC)[6].

As concerns funding for restoration, the Commission encourages Member States to ensure that available EU funds are invested in biodiversity, while exploring further opportunities to finance nature restoration, including public and private finance and market-based instruments.

The Commission intends to submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on restoration funding in line with Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1991[7].

• [1]  Regulation (EC) No 401/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Codified version), OJ L 126, 21.5.2009, p. 13-22.
• [2]  Such as: European Monitoring of Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes (EMBAL): https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=25560696
  Environmental monitoring of pesticide use through honey bees (INSIGNIA): https://www.insignia-bee.eu/
  Land use and land cover survey (LUCAS): https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=LUCAS_-_Land_use_and_land_cover_survey, and its new modules
  The Horizon Europe Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa+): https://www.biodiversa.eu/
  Horizon Europe projects such as Biodiversity Meets Data: https://bmd-project.eu/
• [3] https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13170-GreenData4All-updated-rules-on-geospatial-environmental-data-and-access-to-environmental-information_en
• [4] https://www.copernicus.eu/en
• [5] https://www.euspa.europa.eu/eu-space-programme
• [6] https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/news/proposal-eu-biodiversity-observation-coordination-centre-ebocc_en
• [7] Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration and amending Regulation (EU) 2022/869, OJ L, 2024/1991, 29.7.2024.