The European Parliament's Environment Committee (ENVI) on 1 June 2026 debated the revision of the INSPIRE directive as part of the environmental omnibus simplification package, alongside an exchange of views on integrated wildfire risk management. Rapporteur Emma Wiesner (Renew, Sweden) presented a draft report that broadly supports the Commission's aim to simplify and align INSPIRE with horizontal data legislation, but warns against removing core instruments ensuring effectiveness. She proposes retaining targeted INSPIRE-specific requirements for interoperability and data sharing among public authorities.
Shadows from EPP (Esther Herranz García), S&D (Analisa Corvado), Greens/EFA (Rasmus Nordqvist, Denmark), and The Left (Valentina Palmisano, Italy) all welcomed simplification but stressed the need to preserve data quality, comparability, and specific spatial data standards. Greens/EFA questioned whether deleted articles on network services and data sharing are fully covered by the Open Data Directive, and raised concerns about water service providers' request to limit public access to spatial data. The Left emphasized not dismantling a functioning system. Commission representative Ewa Malz (Head of Unit) confirmed alignment with the rapporteur's approach, noted member states' support for keeping data-sharing provisions, and advised leaving third-party data issues to the parallel Data Governance Act revision. Amendments are due 10 June, with a vote in ENVI scheduled for 10 September and plenary in October.
On wildfire risk management, the committee held an exchange of views with Commissioners Hadja Lahbib (Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality) and Jessika Roswall (Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy). Lahbib stressed better coordination, preparedness (including AI-based early warning), and response (expanding the rescEU fleet). Roswall emphasized prevention through landscape management, CAP support, and ecosystem restoration, noting that land abandonment increases fire risk. MEPs broadly supported the integrated approach, with EPP calling for better cross-border coordination and linking prevention to existing rules.
The debate revealed a broad consensus on the need for simplification, but with significant caution about weakening existing environmental data standards. The main cleavage is between the desire to reduce administrative burden and the need to maintain data quality and interoperability for environmental monitoring. If the rapporteur's approach prevails, public authorities will retain specific data-sharing obligations, ensuring continued access to spatial data for environmental purposes. However, if amendments to further reduce requirements succeed, data comparability across member states could be compromised, potentially affecting environmental reporting and policy implementation. The outcome will impact EU institutions (data quality for policy-making), national authorities (compliance costs), environmental NGOs (access to data), and businesses in the geospatial sector (market harmonization). The wildfire discussion highlighted a shift toward integrated prevention, which could increase funding for landscape management under the CAP and expand rescEU, benefiting rural landowners and disaster response agencies, but may require additional national co-financing.